El Chocón
El Chocón | |||||
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El Chocón power plant | |||||
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Coordinates | 39 ° 17 ′ 0 ″ S , 68 ° 48 ′ 0 ″ W | ||||
Data on the structure | |||||
Lock type: | Earthfill dam | ||||
Construction time: | -1973 | ||||
Height above valley floor: | 71 m | ||||
Height above foundation level : | 77 m (?) | ||||
Building volume: | 13 million m³ | ||||
Crown length: | 2 500 m | ||||
Power plant output: | 1 200 MW | ||||
Operator: | Hidroeléctrica El Chocón SA | ||||
Data on the reservoir | |||||
Altitude (at congestion destination ) | 381 m | ||||
Water surface | 816 km² | ||||
Storage space | 20,155 million m³ | ||||
El Chocón reservoir, photographed from the ISS . The dam is down, north is down left. |
El Chocón (Spanish: Embalse El Chocón ) is the fourth of five dams on the Río Limay in the northwestern part of Patagonia (the Comahue region) in Argentina . The reservoir lies on the border of the provinces of Neuquén and Río Negro . The dam's official name is Embalse Ezequiel Ramos Mexía (Ezequiel-Ramos-Mexía-Reservoir), but it is informally named after the settlement that served as a construction workers' camp in the 1970s and is now called Villa El Chocón. 957 inhabitants live in the village (as of 2001).
El Chocón is the largest hydropower plant in Patagonia. It is used to monitor and control the runoff in the Río Limay up to the Río Negro . The water is also used for irrigation. El Chocón was built by the state company Hidronor (Hidroeléctrica Norpatagónica), went into operation in 1973 and reached full capacity in 1978. Between 1974 and 1995, an average of 2,700 gigawatt hours of electricity was generated each year. In 1993 it was privatized and transferred to Hidroeléctrica El Chocón SA.
El Chocón is part of a larger hydropower system, which includes the Cerros Colorados complex on the Río Neuquén .
dam
The dam was built from earth and has a flood relief made of concrete. Around 13 million m³ of material were used. The dam is 2,500 m long (also 2,270 m are mentioned). Its maximum height above the river bed is 71 m. Other elevations from various sources are 65, 74, and 77 m, which may apply to other reference points. The headquarters building is 58.4 m.
Reservoir
The reservoir Lago Ezequiel Ramos Mexía has a maximum water surface of 816 square kilometers , an average depth of 24.7 m (the largest is 60 m), and a maximum volume of 20.155 billion cubic meters. The reservoir is used for sailing , sport fishing and other forms of recreational activities.
Hydroelectric power plant
The hydroelectric power plant has six vertical Francis turbines , each with a nominal output of 204.5 MW , which rotate at 88 revolutions per minute. That adds up to 1227 MW; however, the total output is usually given as 1200 MW. The generator output is 222 MVA for each generator and 180 MVA for the transformers .
Drain
The Río Limay has high discharge twice a year, in spring when the snowmelt in the Andes and in autumn due to rain. Its mean discharge here at the blocking point is 722 m³ / s, which is slightly less than the Elbe has at its mouth.
See also
- List of hydropower plants in Argentina
- List of dams in the world (Argentina)
- List of the largest dams on earth
- List of the largest reservoirs on earth
- List of the largest hydroelectric plants in the world
Web links
- Secretaría de Energía, República Argentina. El Chocón ( part 1 , part 2 )
- Ficha en el sitio del Organismo Regulador de Seguridad de Presas