Itaipu Dam
Itaipu ( guaraní Itá, rock ',' stone ', i, of ' which ' pú, sounds ', ugs, sings '; Spanish Itaipu, also Itaipu Binacional because of the involvement of two nations ) is the name of a hydroelectric power plant and the associated Itaipu dam and the Itaipu dam on the Paraná on the border between Paraguay and Brazil.
Until the completion of the Three Gorges Dam in the People's Republic of China in 2006 Itaipu was in terms of performance, the largest power plant in the world at all. Due to the high utilization of the turbine remains Itaipu concerning the annual energy production after 2006 in the first place.
Construction work
The power plant is a joint project of Paraguay and Brazil, which was fixed by contract on 26 April 1973 by the then President of Brazil, Emilio Garrastazu Medici, and Paraguay's Alfredo Stroessner, in Brasília. The construction was begun in 1974 and completed in 1982 (Building) and 1991 ( 18 turbine). On the construction site of approximately 34,000 workers were employed. Since May 1984 a year went to completion two to three of the turbines to the grid. 2007 has announced the completion of the project after enlargement to two turbines in a ceremony of Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. 145 people died in the construction killed.
Performance
The rated power of the 18 Francis turbines amounted to 2004, 12,600 megawatts. As of early 2004, the plant was expanded to include two turbines; the total capacity of the power plant is the end of October 2005 14.000 MW. The two additional turbines, supplied and installed by the company Voith Hydro Heidenheim, but serve primarily to keep the amount of energy produced constant when other turbines are shut down due to maintenance.
The standard capacity at a water flow rate from an average of 10,500 m³ / s is 95 terawatt hours ( = 95,000 gigawatt hours = 95 million megawatt- hours) annually. The stator diameter of the synchronous generators is 16 meters. 2008 has been achieved worldwide with a yield of 94.68 TWh until then highest real production of a hydroelectric power plant. In 2012 there were already 98.287 terawatt hours. 2013 a new record was achieved with 98.630 terawatt hours. This revealed Itaipu in 2013 the demand for electricity in Paraguay to 75 %, from Brazil to 16.9%. Since its commissioning in 1984 and up until 2013 Itaipu has 2,135 terawatt-hours of electricity generated.
For comparison yielded Isar 2 in 2006, as a nuclear reactor with the highest annual production worldwide, 12,40 TWh.
Only two of the 20 turbines have at full capacity almost the same water flow rate ( per 700 m³ / s) as the nearby imposing Iguazú Falls.
Use
The located on the side of Paraguay generators produce three-phase current with a frequency of 50 Hz, the Brazilian network operates at 60 Hz, since the majority of the electrical energy produced in Paraguay is exported to Brazil, the stream from Paraguay is first converted to DC and then ( HVDC) 850 km far transported via a high-voltage direct -current transmission to São Paulo, where it is converted to 60 Hz.
For Brazil, which according to the contract funded the entire system, led to the construction of approximately 3.6 billion U.S. dollars ( at the time ) to a significantly higher external debt. However, Brazil, which is about a quarter of its electricity consumption Itaipu moved after start-up, rely on the power plant. Paraguay had the giant project can not fund and organize themselves. Due to the now increased electricity consumption in the country ( 404.3 billion kWh in 2007 according to the CIA Factbook, 2009), the share is now only account for about one-sixth. Paraguay pays its share of the production costs by exporting the unnecessary current to Brazil so that the country can repay its debt with the proceeds. Part of the financial surpluses of the power plant is supplied as compensation for the use of the Paraná riparian communities on both sides of the border.
Further downstream in the south of Paraguay, on the border with Argentina, there is another, huge hydroelectric plant on the Paraná named Yacyretá and a capacity of 4,000 megawatts, which was financed by a similar pattern as the Argentine- paraguayanisches collaboration of Argentina.
Reservoir and dam
At normal water storage level of the Paraná in the Itaipu reservoir is dammed to an area of 1,350 km ² and about 170 km in length. With its maximum storage volume of around 29 billion cubic meters of its surface even reaches 1460 km ². Thus, the lake is two and a half times as large as Lake Constance. The associated dam - the Itaipu dam - is 7,760 m long and 196 m high.
Follow
Particularly in view of the change in the environment, the costs and benefits of the dam are controversial to this day:
The clean energy through hydroelectric power were offset by negative aspects. Even if the relationship between the impact on nature and the benefits due to the enormous amount of energy produced at Itaipu compared to other hydropower plants is cheaper, its construction has changed the environment irreparably. Several thousand indigenous people forever lost their homes, had a total of about 40,000 people - mostly Guarani Indians - to be resettled. For the construction of the dam large areas of subtropical rainforest has been cut down. Still larger areas disappeared just in the floods as well as the waterfalls at Sete Quedas Guaíra who had been almost equal to those of the Iguaçu.
Visits
On the Brazilian side there is on the outskirts of Foz do Iguaçu, a visitor center, where a film about the construction and operation of the system is shown and start from where several daily bus tours to the power plant. On the Paraguayan side, there is a similar visitor center at Hernandarias north of Ciudad del Este. There will be tours or guided tours of varying scope and focus. From the Paraguayan side of the visits are free of charge, on Brazil's side must be paid an entrance fee.
Fridays and Saturdays at a painting of music and light show is held in the evening, when the dam is illuminated with 519 lights. For this purpose, a total capacity of ( light and music ) spent 1 MW. At this event will take place from both sides, a bus shuttle instead.
During construction, architects, engineers, and students had the opportunity, even the interior of the building and the turbines to visit.
Since 2005, "technical" tours are offered on the Brazilian side now, where tourists can visit the inside of the dam and the turbines.
Philip Glass, one of the most famous contemporary American composer, wrote in 1989 after visiting the dam, the Itaipu.
Specifications
- Type: Hollow gravity dam ( at the former riverbed ), massive gravity dam ( at the former diversion channel ), buttress dam ( then both sides of the central part ), rockfill dam and Erdschüttdamm
- Construction period: 1975-1982 ( connection of the first turbines, and the turbines are now last in 2005 put into operation )
- Crown length ( dam and wall): 7,760 m
- Height of dam: 196 m
- Highest water level: 190 m
- Normal water level: 100 m ( deepest point )
- Storage capacity for flood: 29,000,000 m³
- Total reservoir capacity: 29 bcm (for comparison: Bodensee: 48.5 billion m³ )
- Water surface: minimum 1305 km ²; normal 1350 km ²; maximum of 1460 km ² (compared to Lake Constance 539 km ²)
- Reservoir length: 170 km
- HWE - rated water volume: 62,200 m³ / s ( HWE = spillway )
- Power Rating: 12,600 megawatts (until 2004); 14,000 megawatts ( since late 2005 )
- Generators used: salient pole, each with 824 MVA
- Turbine used: Francis turbine
- Standard capacity: 95 terawatt hours per year
- Reservoir width: 7-12 km
- Umzusiedelnde people: 40,000 people
Construction volume:
- Removal of earth and rock: 63.85 million m³
- Replenishment of soil and rock: 15 million m³
- Concrete: 12.57 million m³
( Information: itaipu.gov.br )
Power lines
The current transport in the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo is via 765 kV high- voltage power lines ( for production on the Brazilian side ) and two bipolar 600 kV high -voltage direct current transmissions with 785 or 805 km length ( for electricity produced on the Paraguayan side ). An HVDC solution was necessary because the generators on the Paraguayan side three-phase AC power supply with 50 Hz, while Brazil needs 60 Hz. The converter stations are located in Foz do Iguaçu and in Sao Roque, near São Paulo, Brazil.