ACD America Corp warmly welcomes the agreement signed on June 13, 2026 between the Venezuelan State, through Corpoelec, and IMPSA to complete the Manuel Piar Hydroelectric Plant — known as Tocoma — the fourth and final development on the lower Caroní River. For a corporation that took part in the supply and engineering of the project between 2010 and 2016, this decision is not just another headline: it is the reignition of a plant meant to stabilize the country's power system.
A strategic decision for Venezuela's power system
The agreement contemplates adding up to 2,640 MW to the National Electric System through ten generating units, with an estimated annual output of around 12,100 GWh. Its first phase — 14 to 19 months — aims to restore 672 MW by bringing online the first two units, which have never operated. A key enabler made it possible: in early 2026 IMPSA obtained a U.S. license that cleared the regulatory restrictions and allowed the contract to be negotiated.
Tocoma, the last great plant on the lower Caroní
Tocoma is the last major plant of the lower Caroní hydroelectric complex — alongside Guri, Caruachi and Macagua — and its design comprises ten Kaplan units of 216 MW (2,160 MW installed). The project began in 2006 with an operational target of 2012-2014, but never entered service. Today, with roughly 60% of its electromechanical components already fabricated and in storage, completion moves from an aspiration to a plan with a schedule.
ACD's technical footprint at Tocoma (2010–2016)
ACD America accompanied the project during its construction stage — under the Consorcio OIV-Tocoma, then the main contractor — with two engineering contributions that take on renewed value today: the largest process-valve contract of the project (1" to 36"), including trunnion ball valves hardfaced with tungsten carbide and Alloy 6 for the severe service of the Caroní; and the reengineering of the intake maintenance-gate bypass — a self-acting counterweight mechanism that ACD, through its engineering group ITS de Venezuela, solved with verified calculation where the previously contracted engineering had not.
That first-hand knowledge of the plant's permanent equipment — the valves, the hydromechanical systems, the intake maintenance gate — is exactly the kind of technical continuity that a completion of this magnitude calls for. The two case studies linked below document that work in detail.
Ready to contribute to the completion
ACD America celebrates that Corpoelec and IMPSA are resuming this strategic work, and reaffirms its readiness to contribute its experience in technical procurement, process valves and detail engineering so that Tocoma finally delivers to the country the 2,160 MW for which it was conceived. The lower Caroní is about to complete its last great plant — and ACD is proud to be part of that story, and of what comes next.
Related case studies