Status Under construction Construction cost 2.8 billion USD | Opening date 2018 (est.) Construction began 2011 | |
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Type of dam Embankment, earth-fill clay core Similar El Quimbo Dam, Porce III Dam, Paramillo Massif, Puente de Occidente, Salvajina Dam | ||
The Ituango Dam, also referred to as the Pescadero-Ituango Dam, is an embankment dam currently under construction on the Cauca River near Ituango in Antioquia Department, Colombia. The primary purpose of the project is hydroelectric power generation and its power plant is expected to have an installed capacity of 2,456 megawatts (3,294,000 hp). Preliminary construction on the dam began in September 2011 and the power plant is set to begin operations in 2018. When completed, it will be the largest power station in Colombia.
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Background
The dam's feasibility study was completed in 1983 but the project was shelved in the 1990s due to an economic crisis. The final designs for the project were finished in 2008 and on 8 July 2011, the project management contract was awarded. Preliminary construction (surveying, roads, bridges, diversion tunnels) began in September 2011 and it is expected to be complete in 2013. Main works will begin thereafter and the power plant is expected to being commissioning in 2018. Development of the project is being proposed by EPM Ituango, a consortium of Empresas Publicas de Medellin (EPM) and the Antioquia government. The total cost is expected to be US$2.8 billion.
Design
The dam will be a 225-metre (738 ft) tall earth-fill embankment type with a clay core. The volume of the dam will be 19 million cubic metres (670×10^6 cu ft). Its reservoir will have a capacity of 2,720-million-cubic-metre (2,210,000 acre·ft) of which 980-million-cubic-metre (790,000 acre·ft) will be active (or "useful") capacity. The reservoir will be 127 kilometres (79 mi) long and cover an area of 38 square kilometres (15 sq mi). To maintain reservoir levels, the dam will have a spillway controlled by two radial gates with a design flow of 22,600 cubic metres per second (800,000 cu ft/s). The dam's power plant will have a nominal hydraulic head of 197 metres (646 ft) and contain eight 307 megawatts (412,000 hp) Francis turbine-generators.
Ecological impact
The dam construction has severe ecological consequences, and there are displaced families, environmentalists, youth groups and concerned locals that oppose the project.