Guri Dam

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The Guri Dam is one of the largest in the world. It is located in Bolívar State, Venezuela in the Caroni River. Its official name is Central Hidroeléctrica Raúl Leoni. It is 1300 meters long and 162 m high. The construction started in 1963 with the first part concluding in 1978 and the second one in 1986.

It has long been the focus of much controversy, as the lake created by the dam forever destroyed thousands of square miles of forest formerly renowned for its biodiversity and rare wildlife.

There are two machine rooms with ten generators each producing a total of 87 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and saves 300000 barrels of oil a day. The walls in room number two were decorated by the kinetic Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz Diez.

The Hydroelectric Power station Guri, was constructed in the Tube of Necuima, 100 Kilometers waters above of the mouth of the Caroní river in the Orinoco. The development of Guri in his first stage began in 1963 and was finalized in 1978 with a capacity of 2,065 Megawatts in 10 units and with the dam to a Maximum level of 215 meters above the level of the sea. The final stage of the dam of Guri concluded in 1986 and allowed to elevate the level of the dam to the Maxima level of 272 m.s.n.m, being constructed the second House of Machines that lodges 10 units of 630 MW each one. At the present Guri moments occupies the second place in hydroelectric plants in the World, with his 10,200 MW of installed capacity total. As far as the Guri dam one is in eighth place between the ten of greater volume of water dammed in the World.