The Governor José Richa Hydroelectric Plant, formerly known as Salto Caxias, is a dam and hydroelectric power plant on the Iguazu River near Caxias in Paraná, Brazil. It is the first dam upstream of the Iguazu Falls and was constructed between 1995 and 1999. The power station has a 1240 MW capacity and is supplied with water by a roller-compacted concrete gravity dam. It is owned and operated by Copel who renamed it after José Richa, governor of Paraná between 1983 and 1986.

José Richa Dam

The José Richa Dam is 67 m high, 1100 m long and was built with roller-compacted concrete. It is the eighth largest of its type in the world. The dam's designer, Intertechne Consultores Associados, along with Copel decided on an RCC design as it would be 25% cheaper than an embankment dam. Cracks were noticed in the dam during inundation in 1998 and Copel announced a plan to repair them in 2005. The dam's spillway contains 14 16.5 m wide and 20 m high radial gates, and has a maximum capacity of 50000 m3/s. On the western portion of the dam, 15 sluice gates feed water from the reservoir into the power plant's intake channel.

Power plant

Water from the dam's intake channel is fed into the power station by means of four 11 m diameter and 107 m long carbon steel penstocks. The power station is 180 m long and contains four 310 MW generators manufactured by Ansaldo Coemsa. Each generator is power by a vertical-shaft Francis turbine manufactured by Kvaerner.

Resettlement program

25% of the dam's $1 billion cost was involved in a resettlement program for the 1,000 families displace by the reservoir. The program included building community centers, roads, churches along with paying for healthcare, environmental protection and land provisions.