Jaguas Hydroelectric Power Plant, has an installed capacity of 170 MW, is located in the Department of Antioquia, on the Nare and Guatapé River basins, 117 km. east of Medellín via the Medellín - El Peñol - Guatapé - San Rafael highway. The Plant uses the Nare River, downstream of Santa Rita dam - Peñol reservoir, by means of an earth dam. Reservoir has 185,5 Mm3. Its commercial operation began in 1988.

Location

Guillermo Cano Dam

Located over the Nare River, 1 kilometer downstream from its confluence with the San Lorenzo River, has a length of 580 meters, a maximum height of 63 meters and a 3,2 Mm3 volume. Built in slime and rock, it forms a 10,6 km2 extension reservoir, with a capacity of 185,5 Mm3, 162,65 Mm3 which correspond to useful volume. Its maximum normal level is located at elevation of 1.247 above sea level. The Low Zone dam, built on the right bank of the Nare River for closing a depression in the dividing line of the Nare and Guatapé River basins has a length of 715 meters and a maximum height of 50 meters.

Cable and ventilation shafts

High voltage power cables go out of the powerhouse through a slope shaft 170 meters long. For ventilating the powerhouse and the downstream surge tank, two vertical wells 130 meters and 126 meters respectively were excavated, communicating with a construction window that was used for excavating the pressure tunnel.

Conduction tunnel

The conduction tunnel is 1.831 meters long. It is equipped with a restricted vent type surge tank that has a depth of 150,24 meters, 120,3 of which correspond to the upper tank.

Intake structure

Concrete structure that communicates with the pressure tunnel by means of a vertical well of 4,7 meters inner diameter and 50,77 meters deep of round section and concrete coated.

Underground powerhouse

The plant's main equipments are kept in a cavern 16,5 meters wide, 28,4 meters high, and 66,3 meters long with access through a double pathway vehicular tunnel with variable slope, 10% at its highest and a total length of 775,35 meters.

Floodgate well

The well is 102,6 meters deep and has an oval section of 8,3 meters in its greater dimension. The well hosts two flat floodgates, one main, one auxiliary, with elevating equipment and oil hydraulic station. Additionally, the well has a duct for admitting and displacing air from the conduction tunnel.

Pressure well

Vertical concrete coated well, 156 meters deep and 4,3 meters in diameter.

Discharge tunnel

A pressure discharge tunnel was built over Jaguas Creek. The tunnel is approximately 1.757 meters long. When receiving discharge from the powerhouse, the normal flow from the creek increases to 43,4 m3/s with one unit working and 86,8 m3/s with two units. In order to control erosion on the creek bottom and banks, four energy dissipation structures were built in a 3,8 km stretch, downstream from the plant's discharge.

Downstream surge tank

Separated 35 meters from the main cavern, the downstream surge tank is located where the turbines discharge. The surge tank is 40 meters long, 13 meters wide, and 36,1 meters high.

Pressure tunnel

The pressure tunnel consists of a reinforced concrete coated tunnel, 43 meters long and 4,3 meters in diameter, and a pipe reinforced tunnel. This tunnel is 70,5 meters long bifurcating at its end into two 28 meter and 32 meter long pen stoks.

Main equipments

Connection to the National Transmission System - STN (due to its initials in Spanish)

Energy produced by Jaguas Hydroelectric Power Plant is supplied to the National Transmission System - STN by means of a conventional 230 kV substation.

Spillway

The open channel type spillway is located on the right bank of the dam. It has a variable width of 50 meters of sluice at 30 meters in the exit channel, a length of 264 meters, and ends in a jet deflector. It is designed for evacuating a maximum flow of 2.070 m3/s.