Potrerillos Dam is located on the

Mendoza River The Mendoza River is a river in the provinces of Argentina, province of Mendoza Province, Mendoza, Argentina.

, in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

's Potrerillos Valley. The dam was built between 1999 and 2003 by a consortium consisting of Industrias Metalúrgicas Pescarmona (IMPSA) and Cartellone to provide flood control,

hydroelectricity 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 ...

and

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

water. The dam cost

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

312 million to construct. Located about southwest of Mendoza, the

concrete-faced rockfill dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, drinking water, human consumption, Indust ...

is high and long, impounding the long Potrerillos Reservoir. The dam and reservoir have lost significant storage capacity due to the high

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension (chemistry), suspension with water. Silt usually ...

content of the Mendoza River. When the reservoir was first filled in 2003, the capacity was estimated at , with a total surface area of . This has since decreased to with a surface area of . The reduction in capacity has threatened the flood control capability of the dam, with the concern that the emergency

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...

may become inadequate to pass high flood flows as the reservoir loses its capability to retain them.

Power plants

Water from the reservoir is diverted into a series of two hydroelectric power plants, Power Station Cacheuta and Power Station Álvarez Condarco, with a combined capacity of . From the dam, a tunnel furnishes water to four

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 ...

s at Cacheuta with a capacity of . The water then flows through a second tunnel to power three Francis turbines at Álvarez Condarco with a capacity. The entire hydroelectric complex generates upwards of 850 million

kilowatt hour A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a commo ...

s per year, or 20% of the electrical consumption in

Mendoza Province Mendoza (), officially the Province of Mendoza, is a province of Argentina, in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. It borders San Juan to the north, La Pampa and Neuquén to the south, San Luis to the east, and the r ...

Accidents

In December 2015, A helicopter which was being used for filming an

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

reality show The Challenge has crashed into the reservoir killing the pilot and a technician.

References

Works cited

*{{cite book , last1=Zhang , first1=Changkuan , last2=Tang , first2=Hongwu , title=Advances in Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering: Proceedings of 16th IAHR-APD Congress and 3rd Symposium of IAHR-ISHS , publisher=Springer , year=2009 , isbn=978-3-54089-465-0 Dams in Argentina Dams completed in 2003 Concrete-face rock-fill dams

Power plants

Accidents

See also

References

Works cited