| Aviemore Dam | |
|---|---|
The dam as seen from the northern side |
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| Official name | Aviemore Dam |
| Location | Canterbury/Otago, New Zealand |
| Construction began | 1962 |
| Opening date | 1968 |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Impounds | Waitaki River |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Lake Aviemore |
The Aviemore Dam is a dam of the Waitaki River in New Zealand. Built from earth and concrete in the 1960s (and completed in 1968)[1] to dam Lake Aviemore, it is one of the major dams of Meridian Energy, and is used to power a hydroelectric power plant.[2] It is a part of the Waitaki River Hydroelectric System, a scheme which supplies 30% of New Zealand's considerable amount of hydropower.[3]
Contents |
The dam is located over unequal ground underneath, due to the line of the Waitangi Fault. On the northern side in Canterbury, the dam is founded on solid rock, and consists of a 335-metre-long concrete structure. On the southern side in Otago, the dam crosses the fault as a 457 m long earth dam. During the construction of the concrete section, low-heat cement was first used in a large-scale application in New Zealand, to allow quick concrete pouring without the need for cooling elements.[4]
The dam contains 4 francis turbines of 55 Megawatt each (220 MW total), with the generators being 4 x 11 kV. The facility produces approximately 942 GWh of electricity per year. The net hydraulic head is 37 m, with the penstocks (water pipes leading to the turbines) being the largest in New Zealand (as of 2007), with 7 m diameter each.[4]
In the 2000s, works were undertaken to strengthen the dam against earthquake forces and to reduce the effect of overtopping resulting from earthquake-induced landslides into Lake Aviemore, as the dam straddles the Waitangi Fault, which at the time of construction had been considered inactive, but has since been upgraded to dormant. The analysis and design was undertaken by Opus New Zealand and URS New Zealand, who received received an ACENZ Innovate NZ Silver Award for their safety evaluation & upgrade.[2]
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