Latinnews Archive

Latin American Economy & Business - 3 May 1974

Colombia's Chivor dam

Work on the Chivor dam is nearing the half-way mark, close on schedule, despite persistent rock and landslides at a site which is described as 'tight and treacherous' by the contractors. Nearly 5,000 people are working continuously on the project in round-the-clock shifts to complete the first stage by the July 1975 deadline.

virtually all the 3.3 million cubic yards of excavation on the spillway, an open channel excavated in rock high on the left bank, is completed and concrete work has not been going on for about three months. The lining of the 3.5 mile main feed tunnel is well over half completed, and the lining of the underground penstock shafts and tunnels, which will feed the 500 MW outdoor powerhouse's initial four turbines, has also begun. The whole underground penstock system and a section of the main power tunnel will be steel lined.


Chivor is a two stage hydroelectric project, due to be completed in 1979, when it will supply the country with an additional million kilowatts, around one quarter of the total hydroelectric supplies projected for Colombia by that year. Total cost was estimated at US$275 million for the two stages, but this, like everything else, is expected to rise sharply.

Chivor is the biggest plant of its type in construction here and will be the main link in the central power system connecting the regional systems of Bogota, Medellin, Cali and Manizales. The complex lies in the mountainous Tenza valley, 100 miles northeast of Bogota, and will dam the Bata river into an 815 million cubic metre reservoir. The dam, unusual from many technical points of view, is to be 820 metres long at its base, narrowing up to only 303 metres at the crest.

Water from the dam will be pushed through 5,825 metres of tunnels and 2,238 metres of pipes to the power station, located on the right bank of the Lengupa river. The detour of the Bata's waters has flooded 22 kilometres of the road between Bogota to Llanos, so a new road is now being built above the dam's crest, with as many as 15 tunnels in only twice as many kilometres.

The project is being built by a consortium led by the Impregilo group of Milan, and includes Toshiba and Mitsubishi, Mexico's Ecatepec, and the Colombian firms Ingetec, Ingeneria y Construcciones, and Nieto, Irtiz, Ramirez. Work began in 1970, nearly 20 years after feasiblity studies were first started. The work is being done for Interconexion Electrica (ISA), an entity formed by the major electric power companies in the country.

ISA was created in 1967 with the specific purpose of forming a country wide grid, and coordinating and planning the distribution of hydroelectric power -- which accounts for about 60% of all electricity generated in Colombia. At the end of last year the country's installed hydroelectric capacity was 1.9 million KW, and the aim is to more than double this by 1980 to 4.4 million, which with thermal plant will bring colombia's total capacity up to about six million KW.

Between last year and 1976 alone expenditure on new plant is supposed to total over US$925 million -- nearly half of which will be on foreign equipment and services. The internal resources come principally from the Institute for Industrial Development (IFI), the National Fund for Development Programmes (FONADE), the Corporacion Financiera Colombiana, and various national banks.

*3*Colombia - Hydroelec-
*3*tric Projections to 1980
	Capacity
	(MW)
		Operating
		date
In operation
end 1973	1,878
Projects:
Rionegro	10	1974
Florida II	24	1974
Alto Achicaya	340	1974
Chivor I	500	1975
Guateape II	280	1977
Chivor II	500	1979
Samana I	570	1980
Salvajina	210	1980
Julumito	50	1980
*3*Total capacity up to 1980
	4,362

*5*South America: installed electricity
*5*capacity, MW (1972)
	Hydro	Thermal	Total	Watts/
				Inhabitant
Colombia	1,862	1,098	2,960	123
Argentina	916	6,696	7,612	316
Bolivia	174	97	271	56
Brazil	10,974	2,515	13,489	137
Chile	1,072	1,201	2,273	224
Ecuador	105	252	357	54
Paraguay	90	64	154	66
Peru	1,054	853	1,907	141
Uruguay	236	340	576	199
Venezuela	903	2,275	3,178	285
TOTAL	17,386	15,391	32,777	162

weighted average


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