Country Mexico Status In use Impounds Grijalva River Construction began 1974 | Location Chicoasén, Chiapas Opening date 1980 Opened 1980 Impound Grijalva River | |
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Official name Presa Manuel Moreno Torres Address Carr. Internacional, Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro, Cañón del Sumidero, Chis., Mexico Owner Federal Electricity Commission Similar Sumidero Canyon, Malpaso Dam, Peñitas Dam, Angostura Dam, Cañon del Sumidero National | ||
The Chicoasén Dam (officially known as Manuel Moreno Torres) is an embankment dam and hydroelectric power station on the Grijalva River near Chicoasén in Chiapas, Mexico. The dam's power plant, officially named for Manuel Moreno Torres, contains 5 x 300 MW, 3 x 310 MW Francis turbine-generators. Torres was Comisión Federal de Electricidad's (the dam's owner) Director General in the later 1950s. The original generators were first operational in 1980 while the 310 MW units were ordered in 2000 and operational by 2005. Since then, the hydroelectric power station is the largest in Mexico. The dam was designed in the early 1970s and constructed between 1974 and 1980 under topographical and geological constraints. It is an earth and rock fill embankment type with a height of 261 m (856 ft) and length of 485 m (1,591 ft). It withholds a reservoir of 1,613,000,000 m3 (1,307,680 acre·ft) and lies at the head of a 52,600 km2 (20,309 sq mi) catchment area. It is the tallest dam in North America.