Robert-Bourassa Reservoir
The Robert - Bourassa Réservoir is an artificial lake in the Canadian province of Québec. It is located in the region Jamesie, dams the La Grande Rivière and is a major constituent of the James Bay hydroelectric project.
Description
The reservoir provides the water needed for the hydroelectric power plant Robert - Bourassa (formerly La Grande -2 called ) and the nearby hydroelectric power station La Grande -2-A ready. The two storage plants provide an output of 5616 MW and 2106, their case heights are 137.6 and 138.5 meters. Thus, these power plants are among the largest in Canada.
The Robert - Bourassa Réservoir has a maximum surface area of 2835 sq km (slightly larger than Luxembourg ), the catchment area covers an area of 32,480 km ². A significant part of the water comes from plants to the east; including the Caniapiscau Reservoir, the Réservoir Opinaca and the diversion of the Rivière Eastmain. The reservoir has a total storage space of 61.4 billion cubic meters and a usable storage space of 19.365 billion cubic meters.
The associated dam Barrage Robert - Bourassa was from 1974. It is 162 m high, 2836 m long and 9 m wide, the construction fill is 23.192 million m³. In order to keep the costs as low as possible, an existing moraine was involved in the dam. The spillway is designed for a water flow of 17,600 m³ / s. It comprises eight passages of 12.2 m wide, separated by seven pillars with a diameter of 4.3 m.
In addition to the dam they built 29 small dams with a total length of over 25 kilometers. By far the longest is the Digue Duncan (13,7 km ) at Rivière Dessaulniers, a tributary southeast of the main equipment. The river flows into a lake at an altitude of 143.3 meters, ie an average of 32 meters below the dam. To avoid the flooding of an additional 30 km ² and obtain the Lac Dessaulniers in its natural form, was for the purpose of water level regulation a pumping station. It was commissioned in 1977 and has four pumps with a capacity of 1.7 m³ / s
After four years of construction, the filling of the reservoir began on November 27, 1978, which lasted a little more than a year. The minimum lake level of 167.6 m was reached on September 2, 1979, the maximum lake level of 175.3 m in December of the same year. In the beginning was the dam Réservoir La Grande -2. On 13 December 1996 he was renamed in honor of the Quebec Prime Minister Robert Bourassa, who had died two months earlier and the hydropower project had decisive advances.