__NOTOC__ The Billings Reservoir (locally known as Represa Billings) is the largest reservoir in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, covering a total of . It is named after Asa White Kenney Billings, the American

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 ...

engineer who was instrumental in building it. The Portuguese word ''represa'' also means "dam". The reservoir supplies about 1.8 million people, and also is used for fishing and swimming. In recent years, there have been problems with

wastewater Wastewater (or waste water) is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking water or saline water in a variety of deliberate applications or processes. Another definition of wastewater is "Used water from any combination of do ...

and garbage such as plastic bottles, as well as problems associated with unapproved human settlement in the surrounding regions.

History

The hydroelectric projects were built starting in 1927, and the first phase was completed between 1935 and 1937. The project was started by the

São Paulo Tramway, Light and Power Company São Paulo Tramway, Light and Power Company, also known as Light São Paulo or simply Light (), was a privately owned utility company operating in São Paulo, Brazil from 1899 until 1981. History Canadians William Mackenzie and Frederick Sta ...

, Limited (a company headquartered in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, with British and other foreign capital), today

AES Eletropaulo AES most often refers to: * Advanced Encryption Standard, or Rijndael, a specification for the encryption of electronic data ** Advanced Encryption Standard process, the process used in choosing an algorithm for standardization as AES ** AES instru ...

. Water is drawn from the basin of the high

Tietê River The Tietê River ( ) is a Brazilian river in the state of São Paulo. The first known use of the name Tietê was on a map published in 1748 by d’Anville. The name means "truthful river", or "truthful waters”, in Tupi. The Tietê River i ...

to Henry Borden hydroelectric power plant, in

Cubatão Cubatão is a city in the state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Brazil, 12 kilometers away from Santos (São Paulo), Santos seaport, the largest in Latin America. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of the Baixada Santista. The population i ...

. In 1956 an underground plant was added, increasing the power output to 880 Megawatts.

References

External links

* * https://web.archive.org/web/20090522042852/http://www.mananciais.org.br/site/mananciais_rmsp/billings/ahistbill Reservoirs in Brazil Landforms of São Paulo (state) {{SaoPauloState-geo-stub

History

See also

References

External links