The Salto Osório Hydroelectric Power Plant is a dam and hydroelectric power plant on the Iguazu River near Osório in Paraná, Brazil. It is the second dam upstream of the Iguazu Falls and was completed in 1979. The power station has a 1,078 MW capacity and is supplied with water by a rock-fill embankment dam. It is owned and operated by Tractebel Energia.

Salto Osório Dam

The Salto Osório Dam is 56 m high, 750 m long and is of rock-fill embankment type. The dam has two spillways containing 9 20.77 m wide and 15.33 m wide radial gates and has a maximum capacity of 28000 m3/s. Each spillway is on the main structure and the northern spillway contains 4 floodgates with 5 located next to the power station. The reservoir formed behind the dam contains 403000000 m3 of live storage with a surface area of 51 km2 and a catchment area of 45800 km2. The average flow of the river through the dam is 937 m3/s and the normal operating level of the reservoir is 397 m above sea level.

Power plant

The power plant at the southern end of the dam contains six hydroelectric generators powered by Francis turbines. Four of the turbines were manufactured by Mitsubishi and the other two turbines were manufactured by Hitachi. Each turbine has a rated discharge of 289 m3/s and is fed by a 7.4 m diameter steel penstock which provides a gross hydraulic head of 82 m. The first generator was commissioned on October 17, 1975, with another later that year, two in 1976, another in 1980 and the final June 21, 1981. Tractebel Energia, the owners of the power plant began a refurbishment of the turbines in 2005.