Nalubaale Hydroelectric Power Station

The Owen Falls dam ( engl. Owen Falls Dam, also known as Nalubaale Dam ) is a dam (no dam ), in addition to the power plant Nalubaale Power Station north of Lake Victoria on the Victoria Nile at Jinja (Uganda, Africa ) stands.

Geographical location

The Owen Falls Dam is located about 3.2 km downstream of the former natural outflow of the Nile from Lake Victoria in Jinja. Due to its construction the waterfalls sank Owen and Ripon Falls in the water of the lake, which was by this artificial enlargement of the natural lake to the reservoir.

The lake

Lake Victoria is with its natural total volume of 2,760,000 million cubic meters of one of the largest lakes in the world. The construction of the Owen Falls dam was built " on the lake " a reservoir of about 204,800 million cubic meters of volume and about three feet of additional height.

Dam and power plant (s)

Technology

With the help of the Owen Falls Dam, which was built as nearly 831 m long and about 31 m high gravity dam from 1951 to 1954 at the time of British colonial administration beneath the Owen Falls, it is possible the water outflow from Lake Victoria in the Nile Valley to control, whereby the amount of water is regulated, which flows to the more northerly lakes, such as the Lake Kyoga. It can also be minimized by the outflow of the dam resulting from precipitation years excess water from Lake Victoria that, where appropriate, the deficit in the low-rainfall years can be compensated. Through the power plant ( Owen Falls Power Station in 2000 after the traditional name of Lake Victoria in Nalubaale Power Station renamed) at the dam electricity is generated (60 megawatts) for Uganda and western Kenya.

From 1993 to 1999, about one kilometers further north or down the Nile was built by the Owen Falls Dam and the Power Station Nalubaale another power plant, the Kiira Power Station (after the traditional name for the Nile, formerly Owen Falls Extension) to which the water is passed through a east to the dam around flowing channel. Until the official inauguration in 2003 three out of five machine sets were installed with 40 megawatts.

Naming

The British colonial authorities acknowledged with the naming Owen Falls Dam the officer and Jockey Roddy Owen, founder of Fort Portal and winner of the Grand National horse race at Aintree in 1891.

Effects on the ecology

The effects of the Owen Falls Dam on the ecology of the lake becoming ever more hostile criticism from environmental organizations. After the commissioning of the second power plant reached a maximum in 2006, the water level of the lake a depression that was measured for the last time 80 years ago (before the construction of the Owen Falls Dam ). The Global Nature Fund declared Lake Victoria to the " endangered Lake of the Year 2005."