Itá Hydroelectric Power Plant

The Itá Hydropower Plant is a dam with a hydroelectric plant on the Rio Uruguay in Itá on the border of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. The power plant has a rated capacity of 1450 MW and gets its water from a reservoir, which is dammed by a CFR dam. It is owned and operated by Tractebel Energia and of producing the equivalent of 60 % of the energy consumed in Santa Catarina. The construction costs amounted to 1.4 billion U.S. $.

Background

Construction began in 1980, but were interrupted in 1987 due to financial reasons. In 1995, a new consortium back to work, and the dam was completed in 2000. Most of the 6,000 inhabitants of the town Itá were relocated to a new area above the dam.

Dam

The Itá Dam is a 880 m long and 125 m high CFR dam with a crest height of 375.5 m above sea level. The reservoir has a volume of 5,100 million cubic meters, a water surface of 141 sq km and a catchment area of ​​45,800 km ². The dam has two spillways, one on the right abutment with six overflows and another on the ridge on the west side of the dam, just south of the powerhouse with four fasteners. Each passage is 21.8 m wide and 18 m high, and together both have spillways a maximum capacity of 49 940 m³ / s On the ridge is also the power plant inlet and three auxiliary dikes that are necessary to keep the jam mirror. The inlet is 84.5 meters wide and has five gates, through which the water can flow into the five pressure pipes that have eight meters in diameter and are on average 197 m long.

Power station

The above-ground power house is 172.5 m long and 57 m wide and is home to five 290- MW generators that are powered by Francis turbines. The generators were received between July 2000 and March 2001.

The Barra Grande dam and the Machadinho hydroelectric power plant are comparable dams nearby.