Las Macagua Dam

The Macagua Dam, officially known as Antonio José de Sucre, is an embankment dam with concrete gravity sections on the Caroní River in Ciudad Guayana, Bolívar State, Venezuela. It is 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) upstream from the confluence of the Caroni and Orinoco Rivers, 81 km (50 mi) downstream of the Guri Dam and 22 kilometres (14 mi) downstream of the Caruachi Dam. The dam's main purpose is hydroelectric power generation and it was later named after Antonio José de Sucre.

Dam

The Macagua Dam is a 69-metre (226 ft) tall and 3,537-metre (11,604 ft) long embankment dam with concrete gravity sections for each of the three different power stations. The dam supplies water to three power stations with a generation capacity of 3,167.5 megawatts (4,247,700 hp).

Power plants

Macagua I

Macagua I was constructed from 1956 to 1961 and it contains 6 x 64 megawatts (86,000 hp) Francis turbine-generators for an installed capacity of 384 megawatts (515,000 hp). Currently, Macagua I is undergoing a refurbishment in order to increase the capacity of each generator from 64 MW to 79.5 megawatts (106,600 hp). The first generator was complete in 2010, the second is expected to be completed in 2011 and another each year thereafter.

Macagua II

Macagua II contains 12 x 216 megawatts (290,000 hp) Francis turbine-generators for an installed capacity of 1,592 megawatts (2,135,000 hp). Macagua II began operation in 1996 and was inaugurated in January 1997.

Macagua III

Macagua III contains 2 x 88 megawatts (118,000 hp) Kaplan turbine-generators for an installed capacity of 176 megawatts (236,000 hp). Macagua II began operation in 1996 and was inaugurated in January 1997.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Macagua Dam" and modified on 23 July 2019 under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.