The Luiz Carlos Barreto de Carvalho Dam is an embankment dam on the Grande River near Fronteira in São Paulo, Brazil. The dam serves an associated hydroelectric power plant with a 1050 MW installed capacity.

Background

Owned and maintained by Eletrobrás Furnas, they completed studies for the dam in 1962. Construction began in 1963 and was complete in March 1969 when the first generator went online. The dam and power plant were also inaugurated that year. Because of the Furnas Dam upstream, the water level in the reservoir is operated at similar levels year round. Furnas is currently planning to renovate and modernize the dam and power plant.

Specifications

The Luiz Barreto Dam is a 535 m long and 92 m high earth-fill embankment dam. The total structural volume of materials for the dam is 4290000 m3. The dam's spillway contains six floodgates that are 11.5 m wide and 16.5 m high each. In total, the spillway has a 13000 m3/s discharge capacity.

Reservoir

The reservoir created by the dam has a surface area of 46.7 km2 and capacity of 1418000000 m3 with on 10% of the capacity (178000000 m3) serving as live (active or "useful") storage. The normal reservoir level is 622.5 m above sea level and the maximum is 626.64 m.

Luiz Barreto Hydroelectric Power Plant

Luiz Barreto Hydroelectric Power Plant power house is 24.2 m wide and 177 m long and contains six 175 MW generators that are powered by Francis turbines.