Simón Bolívar Hydroelectric Power Plant

The Simón Bolívar Hydroelectric Power Plant", located in the Guri Dam, and formerly known as Hydroelectric Power Plant "Raúl Leoni" (from 1974 to 2006, when it was renamed by presidential decree) is located in the Bolívar State, Venezuela, in the Necuima Canyon, 100 kilometers upstream from the mouth of the Caroní River in the Orinoco. The river basin has an area of 95,000 km².

The energy produced by the hydroelectric plant is consumed by a large part of the country, including powering part of the city of Caracas. In addition, until September 2018, a fraction of said energy was sold to Brazil through the Guri-Boa Vista line (Roraima state). The plant has a production capacity of 10,000 MW.

The artificial lake or reservoir initially of 800 km² in area formed behind the dam is called Guri reservoir.

Construction

The execution and planning of this work in its first phase as a project began in 1947. The excavation began in August 1963 and ended in 1978, with an installed capacity of 2065 MW in 10 generating units, the reservoir at the level maximum of 215 meters above sea level, and with a total investment of 5.8 billion dollars. Later, in a second stage, its installed capacity would be raised to 10,000 MW for a total of 20 generating units.

The Spanish company "Boetticher y Navarro" collaborated in its construction. (1972).

In 1975 the project to expand the Machine Room earned him the Construction Award, awarded by the Venezuelan Chamber of Construction.

The final stage of the Guri dam, completed in 1986, consisted of carrying out the following works:

• Execution of the gravity and lightening dam to the height 272 meters above sea level.
• Construction of two gravity dams one at each side of the river.
• Construction of a second machine house with 10 generator units, of 730 MW each, at the foot of a gravity dam located on the right bank of the river.
• Excavation of a second discharge channel.
• Construction of two earth dams and redning one at each side of the river.
• Construction of the closing dikes.

The concrete dam has a length of 1,300 meters and a height of 162 meters. It has a 3-channel spillway, which allows excess water to drain out during the rainy season (May to October). The dam was inaugurated in its entirety on November 8, 1986.

Starting in 2007, the plant was modernized in several stages with the participation of the companies Edelca, Andritz, Alstom and ABB.

Relevance

The 'Simón Bolívar' Hydroelectric Power Plant It is the third largest in the world with its 10,000 MW of total installed capacity, (from its inauguration in 1986 to 2003 it was the largest in the world) surpassed by the Three Gorges hydroelectric complex, the Xiloudu Hydroelectric Power Station located in China in 2010, when it completed the operation of its 32 turbines, and the binational Itaipú complex located between Brazil and Paraguay inaugurated in 2003.

During the construction period, in 1968, "Operation Rescue" was carried out, an expedition in which the Venezuelan zoologist Pedro Trebbau traveled to Guayana and which aimed to save as many animals as possible, which, otherwise Likewise, they would have died submerged due to the construction of the reservoir for the Guri Dam. 10,000 animals of 53 different species were rescued.

The plant supplies the electrical system with more than 62% of the energy consumed in Venezuela.

As for the Guri Reservoir, it is in seventh place among the ten with the largest volume of dammed water, with 138 billion m³ and a surface area of 4,250 km².

Electrical Failures

Due to lack of maintenance of the electrical system, on March 7, 2019 at 4:56 p.m. m. A failure occurred in the electrical supply, resulting in a failure of the electrical energy control system according to its demand, and due to automatic security measures, the generation and distribution control system of the plant ceased the generation of electricity, which caused a partial loss in the network distribution system of 735/765 kV AC high voltage lines, which resulted in a massive outage of electrical service in the 24 states of Venezuela, and even affected the border area of Boa Vista in Brazil. This failure lasted for a period of between 72 to 90 hours, and even after that time there were still areas without service. As the failure was resolved, the service was gradually restored, but with instability. Like other derivatives of this failure, as of March 12 of the same year, mass transportation services such as the Caracas Metro, drinking water services and some telephone and Internet services were completely inoperative or intermittently. This failure has been reported as the most serious in the history of the Latin American country. There is controversy regarding what caused the failure. Although the plant is analog, the government attributes it to an "imperialist" referring to the United States government.

In December 2021, a severe electrical blackout occurred that affected 18 Venezuelan states for about six hours. The blackout started at 2 a.m. m. in the morning and began to be restored at 5 a.m. m. in some sectors.

Different professionals and former ministers attribute the cause to lack of maintenance and lack of specialized personnel in the sector. For his part, Elliott Abrams, the special representative of Donald Trump's government for Venezuela, denied that the United States was responsible. of the blackout, directly or indirectly. Abrams said: “the regime's mismanagement, economic policies and corruption are the causes of these problems.”

Nine turbines in poor condition are the cause of the lack of electricity production in Guri, as announced by Eng. José Ignacio Casal, former president of the College of Engineers of Venezuela. In October 2019, a deputy from the Democratic Unity stated in a National Assembly debate that Guri operates at less than 50% of its capacity. Electrical engineer and former Vice Minister of Energy Víctor Poleo confirmed in an interview in August 2021 that the hydroelectric plant only operates 9 of the 20 turbines it has. The project 50 years ago was to supply about 10,000 megawatts, but the Venezuela of 2021 already needed about 20,000 megawatts.