The Xingó Dam is a concrete face rock-fill dam

Dam

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...

 on the São Francisco River

São Francisco River

The São Francisco is a 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...

 on the border of Alagoas

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 ; Sergipe ; Bahia ; and the Atlantic Ocean . It occupies an area of 27,767 km², being slightly larger than Haiti...

 and Sergipe

Sergipe

Sergipe , is the smallest state of the Brazilian Federation, located on the northeastern Atlantic coast of the country. It borders on two other states, Bahia to the south and west and Alagoas to the north, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean...

, near Piranhas

Piranhas

Piranhas is a historic city and municipality in the western of the State of Alagoas, in the Northeast Region of Brazil. Located on the bank of the São Francisco River, just at the border with the State of Sergipe, Piranhas was founded in 1891 and originally named Floriano Peixoto...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. The dam was built for navigation

Navigability

A body of water, such as a river, canal or lake, is navigable if it is deep, wide and slow enough for a vessel to pass. Preferably there are few obstructions such as rocks or trees to avoid. Bridges must have sufficient clearance. High water speed may make a channel unnavigable. Waters may be...

, water supply

Water supply

Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...

 and hydroelectric power generation as it supports a 3,162 MW power station

Power station

A power station is an industrial facility for the generation of electric energy....

. It was constructed between 1987 and 1994 and the last of its generators was commissioned in 1997.

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 130m. 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.

The dam

The Xingó is a 830 m (2,723.1 ft) long and 140 m (459.3 ft) high concrete face rock-fill dam. It contains five zones of 12900000 m³ (16,872,563 cu yd) of fill, mostly granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

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

Spillway

A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of flows from a dam or levee into a downstream area, typically being the river that was dammed. In the UK they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways release floods so that the water does not overtop and damage or even destroy...

 with 12 floodgate

Floodgate

Floodgates 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 canals, or they may be designed to stop water flow entirely as part of a levee or...

s and a maximum capacity of 33000 m3/s. The dam supports a reservoir with a 3.8 km³ (0.911668482696289 cu mi) capacity, surface area of 60 square kilometre and catchment area of 630000 square kilometre.

Power plant

The Xingó Dam's power station is directly southwest of the dam and is 240.75 m (789.9 ft) long, 59 m (193.6 ft) high and 27 m (88.6 ft) wide. It was designed by Promon and contains 6 x 527 MW Francis turbine

Francis turbine

The Francis turbine is a type of water turbine that was developed by James B. Francis in Lowell, Massachusetts. It is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts....

s that were manufactured by Siemens

Siemens

Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...

. The plant also is designed to accommodate another four identical generators that if installed would bring its installed capacity to 5,270 MW.

See also

• Energy policy of Brazil
  Energy policy of Brazil
  Brazil is the 10th largest energy consumer in the world and the largest in South America. At the same time, it is an important oil and gas producer in the region and the world's second largest ethanol fuel producer....
  
  
• Sobradinho Dam
  Sobradinho Dam
  The Sobradinho Dam is a large hydroelectric dam built on the São Francisco River in Sobradinho, in the state of Bahia of Brazil. Completed in 1982, the dam generates power by utilizing six turbines of each, totalling the installed capacity to .- See also :...
  
  
• List of power stations in Brazil