The Alto Valle Thermal Central is a thermal

Fossil fuel power plant

A fossil-fuel power station is a power station that burns fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas or petroleum to produce electricity. Central station fossil-fuel power plants are designed on a large scale for continuous operation...

 power station

Power station

A power station is an industrial facility for the generation of electric energy....

 located in the city of Neuquén

Neuquén

Neuquén is the name of the following things:* Neuquén, Argentina* Neuquén Province* Neuquén River* Neuquén Group...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 (northwestern Patagonia

Patagonia

Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...

, Comahue

Comahue

.Comahue is a sub-region of Argentina slightly to the south of the country's centre that covers the northern part of Argentine Patagonia and includes the provinces of Neuquén and Río Negro....

 region). It employs natural gas

Natural gas

Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...

 and has an installed capacity of 97 MW

Watt

The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...

. Its output is highly variable, depending on the electric market conditions.

Alto Valle is a combined-cycle plant, employing two independent units, each with a gas turbine

Gas turbine

A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of internal combustion engine. It has an upstream rotating compressor coupled to a downstream turbine, and a combustion chamber in-between....

 feeding a 25 MW gas generator and a 15 MW steam

Steam

Steam is the technical term for water vapor, the gaseous phase of water, which is formed when water boils. In common language it is often used to refer to the visible mist of water droplets formed as this water vapor condenses in the presence of cooler air...

 generator, plus an open-cycle 17 MW gas turbine. The combined-cycle units use GEC-Alsthom

Alstom

Alstom is a large multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. According to the company website, in the years 2010-2011 Alstom had annual sales of over €20.9 billion, and employed more than 85,000 people in 70 countries. Alstom's headquarters are...

 turbines and generators for gas, and CA Parsons & Co. steam turbine

Steam turbine

A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....

s and generators for the steam cycle. The open cycle employs a Fiat

Fiat

FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...

 TG 16 gas turbine and a Siam di Tella

Siam di Tella

Siam Di Tella was an Argentine manufacturing company; the name Siam is an acronym from Sección Industrial Amasadoras Mecánicas.-Early years:...

 - E. Marelli

Magneti-Marelli

Magneti Marelli S.p.A. is an Italian company which deals with development and manufacturing of systems, modules and high-technology components for the automotive industry...

 generator.

The power station was started on 24 February 1969. The combined cycles were installed in 1995. Duke Energy

Duke Energy

Duke Energy , headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is an energy company with assets in the United States, Canada and Latin America.-Overview:...

, which also owns the Cerros Colorados Hydroelectric Complex

Cerros Colorados Complex

The Cerros Colorados Complex is a group of dams and hydroelectricity generation facilities on the lower valley of the Neuquén River, in Neuquén, Argentina.-Overview:...

, was granted the exploitation concession in 2000.