Guri Dam

Guri Dam
Location of Guri Dam
Official name	Central Hidroeléctrica Simón Bolívar
Location	Necuima Canyon, Bolívar
Coordinates	07°45′52″N 63°00′00″W
Status	In use
Construction began	1963
Opening date	1978
Owner(s)	CVG Electrification del Caroni CA
Dam and spillways
Type of dam	Gravity/embankment
Height	162 m (531 ft)
Length	7,426 m (24,364 ft)
Volume	Concrete: 6,026,000 m3 (212,806,182 cu ft) Earth: 23,801,000 m3 (840,524,383 cu ft)
Impounds	Caroni River
Type of spillway	Service, controlled crest overflow
Spillway capacity	27,000 m3/s (953,496 cu ft/s)
Reservoir
Creates	Guri Reservoir
Capacity	135,000,000,000 m3 (109,446,281 acre·ft)
Surface area	4,250 km2 (1,641 sq mi)
Power station
Turbines	10 × 730 MW 4 × 180 MW 3 × 400 MW 3 × 225 MW 1 × 340 MW
Installed capacity	10,235 MW
Annual generation	47,000 GWh

The Guri Dam is a concrete gravity and embankment dam in Bolívar State, Venezuela on the Caroni River. Its official name is Central Hidroeléctrica Simón Bolívar (previously named Central Hidroeléctrica Raúl Leoni from 1978 to 2000). It is 7,426 meters long and 162 m high.

History and Design

The dam and reservoir as seen from space.

The Hydroelectric Power station Guri was constructed in the Necuima Canyon, 100 kilometers upstream from the mouth of the Caroní River in the Orinoco. There are two machine rooms with ten generators each, capable of producing a total of 87 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.^{[citation needed]} The walls in room number two were decorated by the Venezuelan kinetic artist Carlos Cruz-Díez.^{[citation needed]} The first stage of development of Guri began in 1963 and was finished in 1978 with a capacity of 2,065 megawatts in 10 units and with the dam to a maximum level of 215 meters above sea level. The second stage of the dam concluded in 1986 and allows the water level to reach 272 m above sea level, and constructed the second power plant that houses 10 units of 630 MW each. As of 2009, the hydroelectric plant is the third-largest in the world, with 10,235 MW capacity. It was once the largest worldwide by installed capacity, replacing Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP and surpassed by Itaipu HPP. The dam is eighth-largest in the world by volume of water.

Since 2000, there is an on-going refurbishment project to extend the operation of Guri Power Plant by 30 years. This project is to create 5 new runners and main components on Powerhouse II, and close to the end of 2007 is starting the rehabilitation of four units on Powerhouse I.

Contribution to Venezuelan energy

Due to government policy in effect from the 1960s to minimize power production from fossil fuels in order to export as much oil as possible, 82% of Venezuela's electricity comes from renewable energy like hydroelectric power.^{[citation needed]} The Guri Dam alone supplies 73% of Venezuela's electricity.^{[citation needed]} The risks of this strategy became apparent in 2010, when, due to a prolonged drought, water levels were too low to produce enough electricity to meet demand.^{[citation needed]} In January of that year, the Venezuelan government imposed rolling blackouts of two hours every day throughout the country to combat low water levels behind the dam due to drought.^{[citation needed]}

Environmental Controversy

The dam has long been the focus of much controversy, because the lake it created forever destroyed thousands of square miles of a forest that was renowned for its biodiversity and rare wildlife, including the only place where the recently-discovered Carrizal Seedeater (a finch-like tanager) was ever found.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Caruachi Dam - downstream of dam
• Macagua Dam - downstream of dam
• Energy policy of Venezuela
• List of largest hydroelectric power stations
• List of largest power stations in the world
• List of conventional hydroelectric power stations

External links

• EDELCA
• Erection Company on Guri