The Zimapán Dam, also known as Fernando Hiriart Balderrama Dam, is an

arch dam An arch dam is a concrete dam that is curved upstream in plan. The arch dam is designed so that the force of the water against it, known as hydrostatic pressure, presses against the arch, causing the arch to straighten slightly and strengtheni ...

on the

Moctezuma River The Moctezuma River (Río Moctezuma) is a river in Mexico that drains the eastern side of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (Sierra Nevada). It is a tributary of the Pánuco River and flows through the Mexican states of Hidalgo, Querétaro, and San ...

about southwest of

Zimapán Zimapán (Otomi: Mabo̱za) is a town and one of the 84 municipalities of Hidalgo, in central-eastern Mexico. The municipality covers an area of . The name Zimapán derives from the Nahuatl words "cimatl", meaning "cimate" (a root used to ferment p ...

in Hidalgo state,

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. The primary purpose of the dam is hydroelectric power production and it services a 292 MW power station with water.

Background

The dam was funded in part by a $460 million

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

loan which was approved on 8 June 1989 and covered the Mexico Hydroelectric Development Project which included the

Aguamilpa Dam The Aguamilpa Dam is an embankment dam on the Río Grande de Santiago in the Mexican state of Nayarit, northeast of Tepic. The primary purpose of the dam is hydroelectric power generation and it supplies a 960 MW power station with water. Construc ...

as well. Mexico raised $250 million in foreign capital as well. Construction on the dam began in 1990 and was complete in 1993. Beginning in 1994, the reservoir filled and the power station was operational by 1995. Approximately 3,000 people were displaced and resettled by the construction of both dams in the Mexico Hydroelectric Development Project.

Design

The dam is a tall and long arch-type located in a narrow portion of the Moctezuma Canyon. The crest of the dam is wide while the base has a width of . The

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

created by the dam has a capacity of and surface area of . The reservoir is formed by the Tula and

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

rivers which join in the reservoir to form the Moctezuma River later downstream of the dam. Water from the reservoir is diverted through a tunnel, bypassing of the river downstream, before reaching the power station. Water at the power station powers two

Pelton turbine The Pelton wheel or Pelton Turbine is an impulse-type water turbine invented by American inventor Lester Allan Pelton in the 1870s. The Pelton wheel extracts energy from the impulse of moving water, as opposed to water's dead weight like the t ...

- generators before being discharged back into the Moctezuma River. When both turbines are operating, the power station discharges a maximum of . It operates as a peak power plant, operating 4 to 12 hours a day depending on energy demands.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zimapan Dam Dams in Mexico Hydroelectric power stations in Mexico Arch dams Dams completed in 1993 Pánuco River

Background

Design

See also

References