Portuguese group EDP has been given approval to begin commercial operation of its first production facility in Brazil, the Santo Antonio do Jari hydroelectric plant, with an installed capacity of 373.4 MW, the group said in a statement.

The plant is owned by the EDP Group and CWEI Participações Ltda, a subsidiary of China Three Gorges Corporation, and is located on the Jari River between the states of Pará and Amapá, and eh authorisation that was granted is for the plant’s first generator unit, with a capacity of 123.3 MW.

With this decision, EDP “expects to start operating within three months,” as the Jari hydroelectric plant “negotiated part of its power at the A-5 Auction in 2010, with operations due to begin on 1 January 2015,” it added.

The statement also said that the generating unit had supplied power to the Brazilian national grid (SIN) on an experimental basis since 26 August of this year.