The La Yesca Dam is a view taken in November 2012 into operation dam on the Rio Grande de Santiago 90 km northwest of Guadalajara on the border of the Mexican states of Nayarit and Jalisco . Construction of the embankment began in 2007 after Empresas ICA won the construction contract. The opening ceremony took place on November 6, 2012. The dam is used to operate a hydropower plant with a capacity of 750 MW and is part of the hydropower system on the Santiago. The construction will regulate the flow of water and improve the use of hydropower at the El Cajón and Aguamilpa reservoirs below .
The La Yesca dam is a 220 m high and 628 m long barrier structure in the CFRD design with a structure volume of 11.9 million m³. The height of the crown is 579 m above sea level. The area of the catchment area is 51,590 km². The flood relief with six radial locks is arranged on the left side of the dam. Their maximum discharge capacity is 15,915 m³ / s. The reservoir has a volume of 2500 million m³ with a water surface of 33.4 km², of which 1392 million m³ can be used for electricity generation. The normal water level is 575 m above sea level. The power plant consists of two 375 MW generators with Francis turbines , which can produce an estimated 1,210 GWh of electricity per year.
