Ormat's Guatemala plant restarts after volcano, hurricane

The firm expects effects to last the next three months.

Ormat Industries Ltd. (TASE: ORMT) subsidiary Ormat Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ORA) has partly restored its Amatitlan geothermal power station in Guatemala, after a volcano and tropical storm damaged it last month.

Ormat carried out an extensive cleanup to remove ash from the eruption and returned all of Amatitlan's three power units to service. Amatitlan is again is selling power to the grid. The company is now cleaning up the damage from tropical storm Agatha.

Ormat estimates the effect on power generation at 5-6 megawatts over the next three months. The plant generates 20 megawatts at full capacity.

Ormat shut down the Amatitlan plant in wake of the eruption of Volcano De Pacaya on May covered the plant in ash.

Last week, Ormat returned its Puna geothermal power plant on the Big Island of Hawaii to full output, after it completed the drilling and the mechanical cleaning of the production wells. The 30-megawatt Puna plant has been operating at two-thirds capacity over the past nine months, affecting Ormat Technologies' business results.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 22, 2010

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2010

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