The Itá Hydroelectric Power Plant is a dam and hydroelectric power plant on the Uruguay River near Itá on the border of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The power station has a 1450 MW capacity and is supplied with water by a concrete face rock-fill embankment dam. It is owned and operated by Tractebel Energia and produces the equivalent of 60% of the energy consumed in Santa Catarina.

Background

Construction on Itá originally began in 1980 but was halted in 1987 because of financial conditions. In 1995, construction recommenced after a consortium was formed and the dam was complete in 2000. Most of the 6,000 people that were in the town of Itá were relocated to a new area above the reservoir. The 741 ha Fritz Plaumann State Park was created in 2003 as environmental compensation for the dam.

Itá Dam

The Itá Dam is a 880 m long and 125 m high concrete face rock-fill embankment dam with a crest elevation of 375.5 m above sea level. The dam's reservoir has a capacity of 5100000000 m3, surface area of 141 km2 and catchment area of 45800 km2. The dam supports two spillways, one of its right abutment with six floodgates and another on the ridge to the dam's west, just south of the power plant which has 4 floodgates. Each gate measures 21.8 m wide and 18 m tall and in total, both spillways have a maximum capacity of 49940 m3/s. Also on the ridge is the power plant's intake and three axillary dikes to support the reservoir level. The power plant intake is 84.5 m wide and contains five gates that allow water to enter the five penstocks that are 8 m in diameter and average 197 m in length.

Power plant

The above ground power station is 172.5 m long and 57 m wide and contains five 290 MW generators powered by Francis turbines. The first generator was commissioned in July 2000 and four more later that year with the last generator being commissioned in March 2001.