The Salto Osório Hydroelectric Power Plant is a

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 ...

and hydroelectric

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an el ...

on the

Iguazu River __NOTOC__ The Iguazu River ( pt, Rio Iguaçu, br , es, Río Iguazú} ), also called Rio Iguassu, is a river in Brazil and Argentina. It is an important tributary of the Paraná River. The Iguazu River is long, with a drainage basin of . Cou ...

near Osório in Paraná,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It is the second dam upstream of the

Iguazu Falls Iguazú Falls or Iguaçu Falls ( gn, Chororõ Yguasu , es, Cataratas del Iguazú, links=no ; pt, Cataratas do Iguaçu ) are waterfalls of the Iguazu River on the border of the Argentine province of Misiones and the Brazilian state of Paraná ...

and was completed in 1979. The power station has a 1,078 MW capacity and is supplied with water by a rock-fill embankment dam. It is owned and operated by Tractebel Energia.

Salto Osório Dam

The Salto Osório Dam is high, long and is of rock-fill embankment type. The dam has two

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 th ...

s containing 9 wide and wide

radial gate The Tainter gate is a type of radial arm floodgate used in dams and canal locks to control water flow. It is named for Wisconsin structural engineer Jeremiah Burnham Tainter. A side view of a Tainter gate resembles a slice of pie with the c ...

s and has a maximum capacity of . Each spillway is on the main structure and the northern spillway contains 4 floodgates with 5 located next to the power station. The reservoir formed behind the dam contains of live storage with a surface area of and a

catchment area In human geography, a catchment area is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...

of . The average flow of the river through the dam is and the normal operating level of the reservoir is above sea level.

Power plant

The power plant at the southern end of the dam contains six hydroelectric generators powered by Francis turbines. Four of the turbines were manufactured by Mitsubishi and the other two turbines were manufactured by Hitachi. Each turbine has a rated discharge of and is fed by a diameter steel

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 ...

which provides a gross hydraulic head of . The first generator was commissioned on October 17, 1975, with another later that year, two in 1976, another in 1980 and the final June 21, 1981. Tractebel Energia, the owners of the power plant began a refurbishment of the turbines in 2005.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salto Osorio Hydroelectric Power Plant Energy infrastructure completed in 1975 Energy infrastructure completed in 1980 Energy infrastructure completed in 1981 Hydroelectric power stations in Paraná (state) Dams in Paraná (state) Dams on the Iguazu River Rock-filled dams Dams completed in 1975

Salto Osório Dam

Power plant

See also

References