Power Markets Development Co. of Fairfax, Va., said financial closure of its investment, as part of a consortium, in an electricity generating facility in Bolivia occurred Monday (7/31).

The Bolivian electricity generating company, Empressa Valle Hermoso S.A.M., was created when the Bolivian government split up its national power company, Ende. This breakup was the first step in a move toward a fully competitive electricity market in Bolivia.

The company includes four operating gas-fired combustion turbines (totalling 87 megawatts) near Cochabamba, and two gas-fired combustion turbines (totalling 124 megawatts) now being built in the province of Carrasco. The company sells power to distributing companies, which in turn deliver it to customers.

The consortium will own a 51 percent share in the company. The bid price was $34 million.

With its contribution of about $10.1 million, Power Markets Development is the largest equity investor in the consortium, which includes Constellation Energy; Ogden Power Systems and two Bolivian companies. Constellation and Ogden will form a partnership to operate the company.

"With its on-going privatization activities, economic growth and increasing demand for electricity, Latin America is an excellent market for Power Markets Development," said Bob Fagan, PMDC president.

"Although the Bolivian project represents our first financial closure, we have other projects in earlier phases of development in both Central and South America," he said. PMDC currently is pursuing projects in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and the United States, he said.

Power Markets Development was created in 1994 to invest in power projects domestically and overseas. It is a subsidiary of PP&L Resources, the parent company of Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. based in Allentown, Pa.