La Esmeralda Dam

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

La Esmeralda Dam is an embankment rock-fill dam on the Batá River, northwest of Santa María in Colombia’s Boyacá Department, in the Valle de Tenza. It is part of the Chivor Hydroelectric Project and its water is redirected to the Chivor Power Station, which then discharges to the Lengupá River. The project helps supply about 8% of Colombia’s electric power.

Key facts
- Location: Northwest of Santa María, Neira Province, Valle de Tenza, Boyacá, Colombia (about 52 km south of Tunja)
- Purpose: Hydroelectric power generation (part of the Chivor project)
- Dam type: Central core rock-fill embankment
- Height/length: 237 m high, 310 m long
- Dam volume: 11.5 million m3
- Reservoir: La Esmeralda Reservoir
- Capacity: 758 million m3 total (680 million m3 active)
- Surface area: 12.6 km2
- Normal elevation: 1,200 m
- Maximum depth: 130 m
- Maximum water path length: 22 km; maximum width: 1 km
- Power station: Chivor Power Station
- Connection: Water from the reservoir flows through two 7.6 km tunnels to eight 125 MW Pelton turbines
- Installed capacity: 1,000 MW
- Annual generation: about 4,620 GWh
- Construction and history:
- Studies began in the 1950s; project nicknamed “Project Gustavo”
- Stage 1 completed around 1977; Stage 2 completed around 1982
- Initially funded by loans from the World Bank
- Ownership transferred to the private sector in 1996
- Operator: AES Chivor
- Cost: About $395 million