The Xingó Dam is a concrete face rock-fill dam on the

São Francisco River The São Francisco River (, ) is a large river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil (after the Amazon, the Paraná and t ...

on the border of

Alagoas Alagoas (, ) is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil and is situated in the eastern part of the Northeast Region. It borders: Pernambuco (N and NW); Sergipe (S); Bahia (SW); and the Atlantic Ocean (E). Its capital is the city of Maceió. ...

and

Sergipe Sergipe (), officially State of Sergipe, is a state of Brazil. Located in the Northeast Region along the Atlantic coast of the country, Sergipe is the smallest state in Brazil by geographical area at , larger only than the Federal District. S ...

, near

Piranhas A piranha or piraña (, , or ; or , ) is one of a number of freshwater fish in the family Serrasalmidae, or the subfamily Serrasalminae within the tetra family, Characidae in order Characiformes. These fish inhabit South American rivers, f ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. The dam was built for

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

water supply Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. T ...

and hydroelectric power generation as it supports a

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many p ...

. It was constructed between 1987 and 1994 and the last of its generators was commissioned in 1997. In Portuguese, the dam is called the Usina Hidrelétrica de Xingó.

Construction

Studies for the Xingó Dam were done in the 1950s and contracts for construction were not awarded until 1982. Construction on the dam began in March 1987 but stopped in September 1988 because a debt crisis stalled funding. Construction commenced again in 1990 and by 1994, the dam was complete. On June 10, 1994, the dam began to impound the river as its reservoir began to fill. On November 15 of that year, the reservoir reached its maximum level of . The power station's first generator was commissioned in December 1994, the next two in 1995, two more in 1996 and the final generator in August 1997.

Dam

The Xingó is a long and high concrete face rock-fill dam. It contains five zones of of fill, mostly

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies und ...

. Four saddles dams (dikes) are also used to support the reservoir. Directly northeast of the dam is its

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 t ...

with 12

floodgate Floodgates, also called stop gates, are adjustable gates used to control water flow in flood barriers, reservoir, river, stream, or levee systems. They may be designed to set spillway crest heights in dams, to adjust flow rates in sluices and c ...

s and a maximum capacity of . The dam supports a reservoir with a capacity, surface area of and catchment area of . Part of the reservoir and the canyons upstream to the Paulo Afonso Hydroelectric Complex are protected by the Rio São Francisco Natural Monument.

Power plant

The Xingó Dam's power station is directly southwest of the dam and is long, high and wide. It was designed by Promon and contains 6 x Francis turbines that were manufactured by Siemens. The plant also is designed to accommodate another four identical generators that if installed would bring its installed capacity to .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xingo Dam Dams completed in 1994 Dams in Alagoas Concrete-face rock-fill dams Dams on the São Francisco River Dams in Sergipe

Construction

Dam

Power plant

See also

References