The Macagua Dam, officially known as Antonio José de Sucre, is an

embankment dam An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface ...

with concrete gravity sections on the

Caroní River The Caroní River is the second most important river of Venezuela, the second in flow, and one of the longest, from the Kukenan tepui through to its confluence with the Orinoco River. The name "Caroní" is applied starting from the confluenc ...

Ciudad Guayana Ciudad Guayana () (English: Guayana City) is a city in Bolívar State (Venezuela), Bolívar State, Venezuela. It stretches 40 kilometers along the south bank of the Orinoco, Orinoco river, at the point where it is joined by its main tributary ...

, Bolívar State,

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. It is upstream from the confluence of the Caroni and

Orinoco River The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers approximately 1 million km2, with 65% of it in Venezuela and 35% in Colombia. It is the List of rivers by discharge, f ...

s, downstream of the

Guri Dam The Simón Bolívar Hydroelectric Plant, also Guri Dam ( or ''Represa de Guri''), previously known as the Raúl Leoni Hydroelectric Plant, is a concrete gravity and embankment dam in Bolívar State, Venezuela, on the Caroni River, built from 19 ...

and downstream of the

Caruachi Dam The Caruachi Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Caroní River in Bolivar state, Venezuela. It supports a hydroelectric power facility with a capacity. It is about downstream from the Guri Dam belonging to the Central Hidroeléctrica Simón Bo ...

. The dam's main purpose is

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

power generation and it was later named after

Antonio José de Sucre Antonio José de Sucre y Alcalá (; 3 February 1795 – 4 June 1830), known as the "Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho" (), was a Venezuelan general and politician who served as the president of Bolivia from 1825 to 1828. A close friend and associate ...

Dam

The Macagua Dam is a tall and 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 .

Power plants

Macagua I

Macagua I was constructed from 1956 to 1961 and it contains 6 x

Francis turbine The Francis turbine is a type of water turbine. It is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts. Francis turbines are the most common water turbine in use today, and can achieve over 95% efficiency. The pro ...

-generators for an installed capacity of . Currently, Macagua I is undergoing a refurbishment in order to increase the capacity of each generator from 64 MW to . 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 Francis turbine-generators for an installed capacity of . Macagua II began operation in 1996 and was inaugurated in January 1997.

Macagua III

Macagua III contains 2 x

Kaplan turbine The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, who combined automatically adjusted propeller blades with automatically adjusted wicket gates to a ...

-generators for an installed capacity of . Macagua III began operation in 1996 and was inaugurated in January 1997.

External links

References

{{Caroní River dams Dams completed in 1961 Dams in Venezuela Embankment dams Buildings and structures in Ciudad Guayana