Bolarque Dam

Historia

Bolarque Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Tagus in Spain, where the river forms the border between the provinces of Cuenca and Guadalajara. About 6 km downstream from the dam is the José Cabrera Nuclear Power Station.Work on the dam began in 1907. In 1908 more than 1300 workers were employed at the construction site. The dam was officially inaugurated on June 23, 1910 by king Alfonso XIII. It is owned by Unión Fenosa.DamBolarque Dam is a 36 m tall and 292 m long gravity dam with a crest altitude of 643 m. The volume of the dam is 160,000 m³. The dam features a spillway over the dam and one bottom outlet . The initial height of the dam was 24 m; it was raised to 36 m in 1954.ReservoirAt full reservoir level the reservoir of the dam has a surface area of 5.1 km² and a total capacity of 30.7 mio. m³; its active capacity is 23 mio. m³.Power plantBolarque IThe original hydroelectric power plant went operational in 1910. The generated power at that time was evacuated to Madrid. In 1954 the plant was closed and replaced with the actual power plant. It has a nameplate capacity of 28 MW and contains 2 Francis turbine-generators with 14 MW each. The maximum hydraulic head is 42 m. Maximum flow is 85 m³/s.