La Yesca Dam

Design

The La Yesca Dam is a 220 m (722 ft) tall and 628 m (2,060 ft) long concrete-face rock-fill embankment type with 11,900,000 m³ (15,564,612 cu yd) of fill. The dam's crest elevation is 579 m (1,900 ft) above sea level and it sits at the head of a 51,590 km² (19,919 sq mi) catchment area. On the dam's left bank is a spillway controlled by six radial gates. The maximum discharge of the spillway is 15,915 m³/s (562,033 cu ft/s). The dam's reservoir has a capacity of 2,500,000,000 m³ (2,026,783 acre⋅ft) of which 1,392,000,000 m³ (1,128,513 acre⋅ft) can be used for generating electricity. The reservoir has a surface area of 33.4 km² (13 sq mi) and a normal elevation of 575 m (1,886 ft). The power station contains two 375 MW Francis turbine generators producing an estimated annual generation of 1,210 GWh.