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FINWIRES

Brazilian Gas-Fired Power Plant Unit Offline After Technical Failure

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The operation of unit 2 of Brazil's UTE GNA gas-fired power plant has been suspended since Aug. 10 due to a failure in the steam turbine circuit breaker which impacted its step-up transformer, the operator said in a regulatory filing to the markets regulator on Wednesday.

The plant's protection systems worked as designed, closing the unit down with no injuries or environmental impact to report, according to the filing which was issued to update debenture holders on the company's operations.

Engineers are now assessing the cause of the event at the plant, located at Rio de Janeiro state's Porto de Acu and are planning for the resumption of the unit's operations while the grid operator has been informed of its unavailability.

Reuters reported that the plant, with an installed capacity of 1.7 gigawatts, is operated as a joint venture between BP (BP), Siemens Energy and Chinese power utility SPIC.

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