Potrerillos Dam is located on the

Mendoza River The Mendoza River is a river in the province of Mendoza, Argentina.Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

's Potrerillos Valley. The dam was built between 1999 and 2003 by a consortium consisting of Industrias Metalúrgicas Pescarmona (IMPSA) and Cartellone to provide flood control,

hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other Renewabl ...

and

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...

water. The dam cost

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

312 million to construct. Located about southwest of Mendoza, the concrete-faced rockfill dam is high and long, impounding the long Potrerillos Reservoir. The dam and reservoir have lost significant storage capacity due to the high

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

content of the Mendoza River. When the reservoir was first filled in 2003, the capacity was estimated at , with a total surface area of . This has since decreased to with a surface area of . The reduction in capacity has threatened the flood control capability of the dam, with the concern that the emergency

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...

may become inadequate to pass high flood flows as the reservoir loses its capability to retain them.

Power plants

Water from the reservoir is diverted into a series of two hydroelectric power plants, Power Station Cacheuta and Power Station Álvarez Condarco, with a combined capacity of . From the dam, a tunnel furnishes water to four

Francis turbine The Francis turbine is a type of water turbine. It is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts. Francis turbines are the most common water turbine in use today, and can achieve over 95% efficiency. The proces ...

s at Cacheuta with a capacity of . The water then flows through a second tunnel to power three Francis turbines at Álvarez Condarco with a capacity. The entire hydroelectric complex generates upwards of 850 million

kilowatt hour A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bil ...

s per year, or 20% of the electrical consumption in

Mendoza Province Mendoza, officially Province of Mendoza, is a province of Argentina, in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. It borders San Juan to the north, La Pampa and Neuquén to the south, San Luis to the east, and the republic o ...

Accidents

In December 2015, A helicopter which was being used for filming an

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

reality show The Challenge has crashed into the reservoir killing the pilot and a technician.

References

Works cited

*{{cite book , last1=Zhang , first1=Changkuan , last2=Tang , first2=Hongwu , title=Advances in Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering: Proceedings of 16th IAHR-APD Congress and 3rd Symposium of IAHR-ISHS , publisher=Springer , year=2009 , isbn=978-3-54089-465-0 Dams in Argentina Dams completed in 2003 Concrete-face rock-fill dams

Power plants

Accidents

See also

References

Works cited