Lotru-Ciunget Dam and Hydro Power Plant is a large hydroelectric complex on the river

Lotru The Lotru is a right tributary of the river Olt in Romania. Its source is in the Parâng Mountains. It feeds the reservoirs Vidra, Malaia and Brădișor. It flows into the Olt in Golotreni, near the town Brezoi. It passes through the communes V ...

situated in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

and one of the biggest complex facilities in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. The complex consists of three hydroelectric power plants. The first and most productive one is Ciunget, the second one is Malaia and the third one is Bradisor which, just as Ciunget is an underground power plant. The river which fills the dams is called Lotru. The first dam is called

Vidra Lake Vidra Lake is a storage reservoir, located in the Parâng Mountains group, on the Lotru River, in Vâlcea County, Romania. It has an area of and a volume of . Its associated hydroelectric plant, '' Lotru-Ciunget'', has a maximum power output of ...

and is one of the biggest artificial lakes in

. The dam supplies water to the Ciunget power plant via an 800-metre drop

penstock A penstock is a sluice or gate or intake structure that controls water flow, or an enclosed pipe that delivers water to hydro turbines and sewerage systems. The term is inherited from the earlier technology of mill ponds and watermills. H ...

. All the used water is recollected via an underground piping system and flows to the Malaia dam where is the second power plant. Malaia dam is a smaller dam and produces less electricity, mainly locally. From the second dam, the used water collects into the Bradisor dam. The Bradisor dam has a bigger capability of producing electricity than the Malaia dam and provides electricity to the Romanian national grid. Bradisor power plant is situated under a mountain in order to make the fall of water greater, thus more electricity. The project was started in 1965, being fully finished only in 1982 and it was made up by the construction of a rockfill with a clay core

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

140 m high and an underground power plant equipped with three hydrounits, having an installed capacity of 510 MW. The Pelton type turbines operate under a net head of about 800 m. A 220 kV outdoor substation connects the plant to the

n electric grid. The Ciunget hydro power plant entered revision and modernisation in 2007. This includes new generators to increase the electricity outflow. The modernisation period is expected to be finished in late 2010. The power plant generates 1.15 TW·h (billion kW·h) of electricity per year.

External links

Lotru Hydropower Developmentat the official Hidroelectrica website
Hydroelectric power stations in Romania Dams in Romania {{Hydroelectric-power-plant-stub

See also

External links