PROGRESS AT THE 11,233.

1 MW BELO MONTE HPP WITH ITS

CHALLENGES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

KEYNOTE LECTURE
Oscar M. Bandeira *

* Norte Energia S.A.

SCN, Quadra 04 – Bloco B, salas 94 e 1004 – Centro Comercial Varig
CEP 70714-900 - Brasília, Brasil
e-mail: oscarbandeira@norteenergiasa.com.br, webpage: www.norteenergiasa.com.br

Keywords: Hydropower, Dams, Belo Monte Dam.

Abstract. The project is developed by Norte Energia S.A. The consortium is controlled
by the state-owned power company Eletrobras, which directly and through its
subsidiaries Eletronorte and Chesf controls a 49.98% stake in the consortium. Others
important partners are stakeholders of the consortium. The Belo Monte project on the
Xingu River is in the middle of the Amazonia jungle, in the State of Pará, in Brazil´s
north side, some 40 km downstream from the cities of Altamira and Vitoria do Xingu,
and 800 km away in a straight line from Belém, the capital city of the state. The plant is
about 3000 km from several major Brazilian cities, such us São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro,
Brasilia and Belo Horizonte. It is the largest completely Brazilian hydroelectric power
plant in installed capacity and the largest hydro project under construction in the
country. When completed in December 2019, it will be the world´s fourth largest hydro
project in installed capacity.

This paper deals with the construction of the Belo Monte hydropower complex, as well as
it comprises the project design with its considerations, the construction logistic, the
phases of the construction with its challenges, and the construction methods. The main
objective of the project is power generation, with an installed capacity of 11,233.1 MW
and an average 4571 MW of firm energy, Belo Monte has been also the solution to
generate the clean, renewable energy, which is required for the development of Brazil.
With a flooded area of 478 km2, it is a run-of-river plant, with only 0,04 km2/MW
installed. The project is modern and fully committed to the principles of technical and
economical feasible, low social and environmental impact. The arrangement of the
project is different from any other one already built in Brazil or abroad, with six earth-
fill and rockfill dams, thirty dikes (some really big dams), a channel with capacity of
13,950m3/s considered the largest artificial one in the world, two powerhouses with 24
generators units being 6 with horizontal Kaplan Bulb turbines, 18 Francis turbines, and
a spillway with eighteen radial gates with a flow capacity of 62,000m3/s.

To achieve large production rates, was needed to build an urban complex to house the
workers and the first work on the cofferdams in 2011 was the kickoff of the construction
of the Belo Monte Power Plant. The construction of a vast hydropower plant in the
middle of the Amazon jungle was a very challenging project. From December to June,

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heavy rains and floods occur, with an average rainfall of 2200 mm per year, increasing
the difficulties and logistical problems, most of the suppliers of materials, equipments
and processed food where located in other regions, mainly in Southeast of Brazil.
Simultaneously to the work´s progress, it was necessary to improve river access by
building a port, the regional highway network was also improved and expanded. More
than at other brazilian hydro projects was necessary to attract and hold workers, by
offering both direct and indirect extra benefits, mainly, by building a village with
complete and standard educational, health and leisure facilities. With a need to produce
high production rates, with schedule constraints, at the peak of the construction were
reached world records of excavation and earth-fill and rockfill, for that it was necessary
four different construction sites, with distance among them up to 40 km, as well as
mobilize an impressive quantity of 35,000 workers and 2500 heavy equipments, provide
maintenance and handle the complex logistics of supply and movement of the materials
on the job site. The civil works needed to allow the start of the filling of the main and
intermediate reservoirs were accomplished in a record time of 4.2 years.

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1 INTRODUCTION
The Belo Monte is a run-of-river plant, with a complex of dams, 02 powerhouses, 02
reservoirs, 01 Spillway, numerous dykes, power canal and a series of canals to supply
two different power stations with water, located in two sites Pimental and Belo Monte 40
km far away, (In Annex 1 the main characteristics of the hydroelectric complex).
It was under study since late 1970s. Throughout this period, the original concept, has
undergone several modifications, so that all necessary measures could be taken to
mitigate its impacts. This was made to maintain the living conditions of indigenous
groups and communities who live in the area surrounding the plant, known as big bend of
the Xingu River.
To comply with strong environmental constraints, Belo Monte was planned to operate
as a run-of-river plant, resulting in a significant reduction in the size of the reservoir and
consequently the area to be flooded.
The area of the reservoir was reduced by 60 per cent compared with the initial Project.
As a comparison, while the Brazilian average flooded area for hydropower is 0.49 km2
per installed MW, the ratio for Belo Monte is only 0.04 per installed MW, the second
lowest ratio in Brazil. In addition, of the 478 km2 of flooded area, about 228 km2 or 47.7
per cent correspond to the original riverbed.
It can thus be concluded that the Belo Monte hydropower scheme was continuously
optimized to reduce environmental impacts, as compared with other hydropower, which
leads to improved sustainability and represents good practice for a hydro project.
The Project took the necessary steps to avoid flooding Indian lands, which remain
untouched by the dam, construction sites, access roads and other engineering structures
required for the project.
For the indigenous communities, and those who use the Xingu River for fishing or
transport, the Belo Monte project created solutions to enable boats to pass through, also
to allow fishes to pass the dam.
As well in the construction of the main dam of Belo Monte, in Pimental site, a stretch
of approximately 100km, downstream of the dam, the so-called big bend of the Xingu
river, has an ecological hydrograph consensus with the purpose of generation of energy
and the adoption of a hydrography that meets the maintenance and continuity of
ecological processes (terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems) and navigability and life of
riparian and indigenous communities for the maintenance of biodiversity, navigability
and the living conditions of the populations of the Stretch of Reduced Flow (SRF).
Currently, the civil works are concentrated in the placement of the secondary concrete
for assembling of the remaining generating units. By August 2018, the civil works
amount 98.1% and the installed capacity of 6344.2 MW with 16 generating units, 06
Bulb and 10 Francis turbines, what represents 56,5% of the total of the installed capacity.
The first turbines went online on April 2016. The power station is planned to be
completed by end of 2019. The plant is also responsible for supplying electricity for the
interconnection among the systems in the North/Northeast, South/Southeast and Centre-
West regions.

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2 GENERAL ARRANGEMENT
The general arrangement of Belo Monte hydroelectric complex, which is a run-of-river
plant, is characterized to be one of the largest diverse powerplant in the world, it presents
four distinct construction sites distant to each other, from the main dam structures, with
approximately 7 km of extension in the actual stretch of the Xingu River. From the site
called Pimental, to the site Belo Monte, where the main Powerhouse of the project is
currently in generation and under construction, the distance is approximately 40 km
away, in which they are interconnected by the largest Power Canal of the World (For
more details, see Ref. [1]), approximately 16 km long and 0.3 km wide, and the
Intermediate Reservoir, an artificial reservoir with 28 large dykes, like Dike 13,
approximately 2000 m in length, 53 m of height and volume of 5,7 million m³, as well as
by small dikes, like Dike 1, with 80 m of length, 6 m of height and volume of 5 thousand
m³, forming a maximum abrupt drop of 94.12m (See Figure 1).

Figure 1 – General Arrangement of HPP Belo Monte

2.1 PIMENTAL SITE

The main dam across Xingu River, located 40 km downstream from Altamira city with
7 km of extension, it forms the main lake with 359 Km2 and consists of several major
components: Left Lateral Dam, Complementary Powerhouse with 06 horizontal Kaplan
Bulb turbines, with an unit power of 38.85 MW, with a total installed capacity of 233.1
MW, 01 Spillway with 18 radial gates with capacity to flow 62,000 m3/s, Dam linking
Spillway with the Serra island, Dam of the right channel, 2 Dikes, an efficient
Transposition System of Boats, from upstream towards downstream and vice versa, a
Fish Transposition Channel and a Switchyard of 230 KV. The mínimum Flow of 700
m3/s in Big Bend of Xingu River, which is mandatory in enviromental constraints is
guaranteed by the Spillway and normally maintained by the Complementary Powerhouse
operation, to mitigate socio-environmental impacts. The studies defined the choice of a
cofferdam as the type of dam for the second stage river diversion, thus speeding up

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construction times and ensuring the safe start of reservoir filling and power generation,
without the need to complete all structures in one first step. After reservoir filling the
cofferdam was incorporated and the dam was completed.

Figure 2 – General Arrangement of Pimental site

2.1.1 THE LATERAL LEFT DAM (LLD)

The Left lateral dam, showed in the Figure 3, which interconnects the concrete
structures with the left abutment, is 5100 m long, passing over three large islands (Forno,
Marciana, Pimental), and the section on Pimental Island corresponds to a length of 2900
m. In the stretches on the islands, the dam has a homogeneous earth section, with an
average height of 14 m, supported by alluvial soils, and the implementation of a rock cut-
off trench for interception of the flow of the seepage. In the stretches of the Pimental and
Marciana islands, the sealing trench was shifted upstream of the dam, where the alluvial
layers have less thickness. In the stretches of the canals, it has an average height of 23.00
m and is supported by rock. In the section near the concrete structures the section is of
rock formation with clay core, with foundation in sound rock.

Figure 3 - Left Lateral Dam (Strech on Pimental and Marciana Islands)

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2.1.2 RIGHT CHANNEL DAM

The Right Channel Dam, located in the deepest section of the Xingu River, with an
extension of 714.00 m, has an earth / rock section in the central section, supported by
sound rock, with a maximum height of 41.00 m, supported on soil of homogeneous in the
margins, supported in residual soil of migmatite.
The downstream of the dam also rests on the downstream Cofferdam, incorporating it
partially. Figure 4 shows the cross section of the Right Channel Dam and the cofferdams
of the 2nd phase of the river diversion.

Figure 4 –Right Dam Channel and Cofferdams 2ª Phase – Cross Section

2.1.3 COMPLEMENTARY POWERHOUSE

A main concrete gravity dam, with an integrated intake structure. It holds the 06
horizontal Kaplan turbines type Bulb generating units, and an assembling bay and an
unloading bay. The Complementary powerhouse has 6 (six) Bulb generating units with a
unit capacity of 38.85 MW, totaling an installed capacity of 233.1 MW. On the right side
there is a Dividing Wall, where are located the wells of drainage, and connecting the
powerhouse to the Spillway.

Figure 5- Intake and powerhouse

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2.1.4 SPILLWAY
The spillway is located on the right of the Complementary powerhouse and it was
designed to discharge 62,000 m3 / s, with the reservoir at El. 97,50 (Full Supply Water
Level level). There are 18 spans with 20.00 m of width each and ogee crest in El. 76.00.
Its flow is controlled by segment type floodgates, and upstream and downstream are
provided stop-logs for maintenance. The energy dissipation of the discharged flows is
made by means of a short dissipation stilling basin. The Spillway has two service
bridges, one upstream with crest in the El. 100 m and another downstream with the crest
in the El. 98 m.

Figure 6- Spillway with 18 segment gate

2.1.5 FISH TRANSPOSITION CHANNEL

The Fish Transposition Channel is designed for a flow of 12m3/s, it is located on the
left of the Complementary powerhouse, it comprises a bypass channel that seeks to
simulate the natural flow conditions in the river. The entrance structure of the fish is
located next to the tailrace channel and is provided with a control structure for a miter
gate for fish attraction. The outlet structure is adjacent to the dam, away from the intake,
and is provided with a structure for flow control and fish monitoring. That structure
consists of 1.41% slight inclination at the bottom of the channel and 1.2km long concrete
channel composed of a series of tanks separated by transverse deflectors built in gabions,
spaced 14.20 m, which have an opening for the passage of the flow and fish (gap –
vertical groove). The channel has trapezoidal section of 6 m at the base and walls with
the slope of 1,8H: 1,0V. The passages provide 0,2m difference of level between two
successive tanks.

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Figure 7- Fish transposition channel

2.1.6 BOAT TRANSPOSITION SYSTEM

The boat transposition system was implanted on the right bank of the Xingu River. The
system consists of three semi-channels excavated to approach the boats. On the structures of
the semi-canals were constructed piers for the operation with equipment type Travell Lift. At
the pier level, a platform was built for the maneuvering and positioning of a special self-
propelled truck called the transporter. The System allows the boats cross the dam from
upstream to downstream and vice- versa, also has the following facilities: Passenger Station,
Operational Control Station, Parking, Workshop, Warehouse, Gas station, Fire System,
Reservoir and Water Treatment Plant.

Figure 8- Boat Transposition Syst

2.2 POWER CANAL

The Power Canal connects the upstream reservoir at the Pimental site to the
intermediate reservoir, which feeds the main powerhouse in Belo Monte site. It is a 16-
km-long conveyance canal with a width of 359 m at the top and a minimum width of 210
m at its base, and comprises a sequence of straight and curved stretches, over the entire
course of the channel, lined with rock along the bottom and side slopes in soils with
different gradations. Close to the entrance of the Canal, the bottom is at elevation 87 m,
it is 500m wide and it keeps this size for a length of 160 m, after that a ramp with 270 m
length down to elevation 75 m where it widens to 210m and this one is maintained. The
headrace canal is 25 m deep and experience flow depths up to 22 m and it was designed
to convey a maximum discharge of 13,950 m3/s, with an estimated average flow velocity
of about 2.5 m/s, for a peak generation of 11,000 MW at the Belo Monte Power Plant.
The initial impounding of the canal and intermediate reservoir was carried out by a
Spillway located about 1 km from the entrance of the canal to provide controlled flows
with 02 gates and a capacity of up to 1000m3/s, as well as an earth cofferdam was
constructed at the entrance to protect the excavation works of the Canal. That cofferdam

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was removed when the water level inside of the Canal was approximately the same of the
water level of the lake in Pimental site. A bridge located 13.5 km from entrance of the
Canal links both sides of the access roads.

Figure 9- Power Canal Arrangement

Figure 10- Canal filling using a side channel and spillway

On the sides of the bottom floor, there are drainage channels used during the
construction phase. The bottom floor of the Canal is lined with processed rock material,
with a thickness of 0.60 m, to provide uniformity of the Canal roughness. In the sections
where the bottom of the channel was in soil, a transition layer of 0.20 m thickness was
applied under the rock material.
The sides slopes excavated in rock have a slope of 0.5H: 1.0V, and the slopes
excavated in soil have slopes of 2.5H: 1,0V, to allow the transit of equipment (tractors)
along the slope itself for the application of the rockfill lining. Both sides of the channel

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have access roads at the elevation 100 m, which delimits the edge of the channel (line A)
distant 179.50 m from the axis. At elevations 84.00 m and 93.00 m, the slopes have
intermediate berms which, for a soil excavation configuration (Figure 3A), are 6.00 m
wide. This configuration of section excavated in soil (or conformed by earth-fill)
constitutes the typical section where the top of the rock is above the bottom floor of the
channel (Figure 3B), the slopes are excavated with inclination of 0, 5H: 1.0V with the
width of the rock-carved shoulders widened in order to maintain the excavation of the
typical section in soil.
As can be seen in Figure 3C, soil or earth-fill embankments are lined with a 0.6 m-
thick 5D rockfill material applied over a transition layer of 0.20 m in thickness. This
material has a grain size greater than the 5D ‘material (applied to the bottom floor), it
was obtained directly from the mandatory excavations of the channel.

Figure 11- Canal - Fill Section

Figure 12- Canal - Rock Section

Figure 13- Canal - Background Details

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2.3 INTERMEDIATE RESERVOIR

The intermediate reservoir is an artificial one created, made up of 28 dikes and dams
of earth-fill and rockfill, and has seven channels for the transposition of basins, and 03
for reservoir filling, with a total surface work of 119 km². It connects the main Reservoir
of the Xingu River, through the Power Canal, to the main Powerhouse generation, which
has an installed capacity of 11,000 MW, with 18 Francis turbines. The filling reservoir
process was carried out by a spillway controlled by two radial gates, located in the right
side of the Power Canal, interconnected to the main Reservoir (Figure 10). Sixteen filling
stages were established, which were defined so that the process of transposition of the
flow between the basins did not compromise the integrity of the linings of the
transposition channels and the Power Canal. For this purpose, the filling flow restrictions
were determined to reach, in a controlled manner, the water levels, accumulated volumes
in the valleys, partial and total times for filling.
The initial stage occurred with the gradual opening of the filling spillway, with control
of the gates until the flow of 100 m³ / s. This flow was maintained until the water level
within the Power Canal reached 76.0 m elevation.
Afterwards, the spillway gates were opened to discharge a flow of 200 m³ / s,
maintaining this flow until the water level reached the elevation 71m between the
Paquiçamba and Aturiá valleys, thus fulfilling the steps 2 to 11.
With the bottom of the valleys filled with water up to the 71 m elevation, it was
possible to increase the water flow through the spillway to 500 m³ / s and later to 1,000
m³ / s, thus reducing the total filling time and ending the process. The total filling of the
Power Canal and Intermediate Reservoir occurred within a period of about 45 days.

Figure 14- 16 steps of filling of Power Canal and Intermediate reservoir in 45 days

2.4 BELO MONTE SITE

The Belo Monte consists of a power plant with an installed capacity of 11,000 MW,
with 18 Francis turbines with a power of 611,1MW each one, with 02 big closure dams,
net head is 87.00 m, from the intermediate reservoir to the tailrace channel, where the
waters of Xingu river finally return to its natural river bed after a big course since its
diversion from the main reservoir located in Pimental Site. The conception of the design
allowed the construction of this huge project to be executed almost completely
independent from the course of the River, with no need for river diversion while the main
structures were being built, keeping the Xingu River virtually unaltered during the
construction.

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2.4.1 GENERAL ARRANGEMENT

The general arrangement of the structures located in the Belo Monte site comprises the
generation circuit itself, the Intake, the Penstocks, the Powerhouse and the Tailrace
channel, two Closure Lateral earth and rock-fill dams and Santo Antônio earth-fill dam.
The Power Intake structure directs the water collected from Intermediate Reservoir to
the main Powerhouse through 18 penstocks with 11.6 meters in diameter.
The concrete structures of the Belo Monte comprise eighteen blocks of the Power
Intake, a Concrete-gravity central block, and two side closure Walls and an embracing of
the earth dams and rockfill of the adjacent banks, with extension total of about 819 m
and with the crest elevation at 100 m.
The Power Intake, the Central Wall and the Closure Side Walls were carried out with
Conventional Vibrated Concrete (CCV) and Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC).

Figure 15- Intake and powerhouse

The Gravity Power Intake consists of 18 blocks of 33 m wide, these blocks are
arranged in two groups, ten blocks are in the hydraulic right and the remaining eight
blocks on the left one. These two groups are separated by a concrete gravity block.
The main powerhouse of the Belo Monte power plant plant houses 18 units with
“Francis” vertical axis turbines. The blocks of the generating units are 33.00 m wide each
one, eight of them located on the left side and ten on the right side, separated by a 33.00
m wide central block. There are five blocks on the Assembling Bay in the left bank, with
33.00 m each and two more blocks on the Unloading Bay ,with 20.70 m wide on the right
bank and 36.50 m wide on the left bank.
The Substation that connects the power plant to the transmission line is an insulated
SF6 gas, at 500 kV located upstream of the transformers on the main deck of the
Powerhouse.
The tailrace channel was excavated in soil and rock, about 2 km long and 620.00 m
wide.

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The Left Dam Closure has the crest at the EL. 100.00 m, maximum height of 88 m and
extension of 1100.00 m with a volume 7.790.326. The Right Dam Closure has the crest at
the EL. 100.00 m, maximum height of 54.00 m and extension of 780.00m, with a volume
of materials of The Santo Antônio Dam, is located to the left of the Power Intake in a
position close to the Left Dam Closure. The dam crest at the EL. 100.00 m with the
lowest elevation of the foundation being located in approximately EL. 30.00 m, which
results in a structure with a height of 70.00 m. The crest has a width of 7 m and an
extension of the order of 1,310.00 m totaling 6,222,390 m³ of earth-fill.

Figure 16- General arrangement

3 MAIN FIGURES OF THE PROJECT

The main figures of the Project forecasted and carried out until July 2018 are shown in
the table below:
Table 1 - Top Volumes

Predicted Volume
Description Unit Percentage
Volume Executed
Earth and Rockfill m3 60.867.964 60.857.734 100,0%
RCC
m3 689.009 689.009 100,0%

CVC m3 2.380.261 2.270.591 95,4%

Lining of the bottom floor m3 3.985.712 3.985.712 100,0%

Lining of side slopes m3 2.374.991 2.374.991 100,0%

Common Excavation m3 121.485.271 121.485.271 100,0%

Rock Excavation m3 44.540.020 44.540.020 100,0%

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4 THE MAIN EVENTS AND CHALLENGES

Year 2011 - The beginning of the construction.
Year 2012 - Among the challenges faced in the construction of the Belo Monte HPP,
the first access to intercept the Xingu River in the Pimental Site, was one of them.
The starting of the installation of the industrial plant and facilities such as: lodging for
workers, restaurant, quarry, rock crushing system, batch plant, industrial yards for
concrete, formwork and steel, and the start of the preparatory woks for the 1st phase of
the woks of diversion of the Xingu River, as well as where started the excavation of the
Power Canal, the excavation of the intake and powerhouse of the Belo Monte site.
Year 2013 year- On January, major targets were reached, with the completion of the
works of the 1st Phase of the Xingu´s River diversion, and the beginning of the operation
of the Boat Transposition System. Among the goals achieved in 2013, are the beginning
of the concrete placement of the Pimental powerhouse on February 2013 as well as the
beginning of the concrete placement of the Intake and powerhouse in Belo Monte site.
Year 2014 - The electromechanical assembly gained relevance on June 2014 with the
start of the operation of the main crane at the Belo Monte site in June, when the stay ring
of the Generating Unit 1 (UG 1) of the powerhouse was put on place. The installation of
the floodgates in the Pimental site was started in July 2014. At the end of that year, the
Belo Monte HPP reached the peak of construction, with more than 35 thousand workers
and great advances were achieved.
By November 2014, excavations had already exceeded 160 million cubic meters, as
well as 40 million cubic meters of earth-fill and more than 2 million cubic meters of
concrete.
Year 2015 - Two events of magnitude were reached in 2015 in the Pimental Site, the
deviation of 2ª. Phase of the Xingu River by the Spillway on July and, afterwards on
August the closure of the right channel of the river with the second stage cofferdams,
allowing the beginning of the filling of the reservoir in November 2015.
At the beginning of the 2nd phase deviation, on July 31, 2015, the cofferdams of the
first phase were removed, and the right channel was sequentially closed on August 7.
The building of a water dam on the main arm of the Xingu River, with 1.2 million
cubic meters in 80 days and 40 meters high, was the great challenge all involved in the
construction of the Belo Monte HPP had to face.
The uncertainties as to the foundation conditions in the right channel led the designers
to develop a cofferdam, with the purpose of bearing the reservoir for one year until the
definitive construction of the Right Channel dam.
After the completion of the structures, which reached their crests at El. 100,00m on
November 24, 2015, was started the filling of the Main Reservoir of the Xingu River and,
on December 12, 2015, the filling of the Intermediate Reservoir was started by means of
a Spillway with two gates located on the right bank at the beginning of the Power Canal.
Year 2016 -The completion of the filling of the reservoirs occurred on February 15,
2016, as recorded in the Figure 17. On October 2016 the Right channel dam in Pimental
was completed, since the beginning of the filling of the Reservoir in November 2015 and
October 2016 the cofferdam in the right channel had played the role of the dam.

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Figure 17- Completion of the filling of the reservoirs

5 CONSTRUCTION METHODOLOGY
The most relevant construction methods employed in the concrete structures of the
Belo Monte site were the Roller Compacted Concrete- RCC at the Intake of the Belo
Monte site, using the sloped layer method of placing.
As well the construction method with pre-assembled steel bars, the use of slip forming
with pumped concrete in the concrete structures of the Intake, Powerhouse and Spillway
speed up the construction in the Belo Monte and Pimental site.

6 PEAKS OF OUTPUT
The Belo Monte HPP, a national pride, was built in Brazil by more than 35 thousand
workers, breaking several output records of common and rock excavation, as well as in
earth fill and rock fill services.
- Peak of monthly output of structural concrete: 110,000 m³ on September 2014;
- Peak of monthly output of common excavation: 6,600,000 m³ on July 2015;
- Peak of monthly rock excavation: 2,500,000 m³ on July 2015;
- Peak of monthly output earth-fill and rock-fill: 6,280,000 m³ on July 2015.

7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author is grateful to the Board of Norte Energia and particularly to his engineering
team who have worked together since the beginning of the project and for all 35.000
workers who have worked in this huge Project,

8 REFERENCES

[1] IEP – Consórcio Projetista. Projeto Básico Consolidado da UHE Belo Monte. 2012.
[2] IEP – Consórcio Projetista. Projeto Executivo da UHE Belo Monte. 2012-2016.
[3] CCBM – Consórcio Construtor Belo Monte. Relatório Mensal de Progresso. 2016.
[4] CBDB- Revista Brasileira de Barragens- A CONSTRUÇÃO DO COMPLEXO
HIDRELÉTRICO DE BELO MONTE QUARTA MAIOR DO MUNDO EM
CAPACIDADE INSTALADA- MAIO 2017- BIAGIONI J.M, BANDEIRA O.M., AND
LEITE D.T.

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 ANNEX 1 - MAIN CHARACTERISTICS – BELO MONTE HPP

Pimental Site
Geradores
River Xingu Nominal Power: 40,90 MVA
Installed Capacity: 233,10 MW Rotation Speed: 100,00 rpm
Firm Energy: 145,72 MW Tensão Nominal: 13,8 kV
Flooded Area 373 km2 Rendimento Máximo: 97,00 %
Quantities: Power Factor: 0,95
Common Excavation: 4,269,205 m3 Total Weight per Unit: 2.700 kN
Rock Excavation: 1,946,811 m3 Spillway
Earthfill and Rockfill: 11,676.030 m3 Type: Floor Sill
Concrete: 666,687 m3 Maximum Flow: 62.000 m3/s
Power Intake Sill Elevation: 76 m
Type: Gravity Total Length: 445.50 m
Total length: 114,30 m Number of Spans: 18
Gates Width: 20 m
Type: Stop-Logs Gates
Width: 5.64 m Type: Segment
Height: 17.33 m Width: 20 m
Complementary Powerhouse Height: 22 m
Type: Surface Right Channel Dam
Generators Units: 6 Type: Rockfill
Width of the Blocks: 67.15 m Material: Soil and Rock
Total Length: 114.30 m Total Length: 1100 m
Turbines Height: 34 m
Type: Horizontal Kaplan- Bulb Width of Crest: 9,00 m
Nominal Power: 38.85 MW Elevation of Crest: 100,00 m
Rotation Speed: 100 rpm Lateral Left Dam
Nominal Head 11.40 m Type: Earth-fill
Nominal turbinable flow: 380 m3/s Total Crest Length: 5100 m
Rendimento Máximo: 94.5 % Height: 14 m
Total Weight per Unit: 8.200 kN Crest Elevation: 100,00 m
[5]

Power Canal
Minimum Width of the Bottom: 210 m Common Excavation: 86.957.163 m3
Total Length Excavated: 20,181 m Rock Excavation: 24.537.929 m3
Total Length after Impounding: 16,200 m Fund coating (Agr. Crushed): 2.704.765 m3
Maximum flow depth: 22.50 m Embankment: 8.942.544 m3
Maximum Flow: 13,950 m3/s Concreto: 38.152 m3
[6]

Intermediate Reservoir
Dam: 1 Common Excavation: 21.508.433 m3
Dikes: 28 Excavation in Rock: 690.141 m3
Transposition Channels: 7 Fund Coating (Broken Rock): 1.005.925 m3
Filling Channels: 3 Embankment: 30.380.351 m3
Flooded Area (NA Max. Maximorum):: 120 km2 Concrete: 44.272 m3

Belo Monte Site

Energy Studies
River: Derivation of Xingu Turbines
Power Installed: 11.000,00 MW Type: Francis
Energy Firm: 4.238,57 MW Nominal Unit Power: 620,40 MW
Quantidades de Materiais Synchronous Rotation: 90 rpm
Common Excavation: 25.899.698 m3 Reference Fall: 87 m
Excavation in Rock: 14.304.213 m3 Nominal Unit Flow: 775 m3/s
Embankment: 10.801.151 m3 Maximum yield: 94 %
Concrete: 2.305.612 m3 Total Weight per Unit: 21.182 kN
Power Intake Generators
Type: Gravity Nominal Unit Power: 679,00 MVA
Total length: 627,00 m Synchronous Rotation: 90,00 rpm
Gates Rated voltage: 18 kV
Type: Emergency Wagon Maximum yield: 98,65 %
Width: 10,10 m Power factor: 0,90
Height: 15,68 m Total Weight per Unit: 25.740 kN
Penstock Barragem de Fechamento Direito
Internal diameter: 11,60 m Type of Frame / Material: Fill / Rockfill
Number of Units 18 Total Crest Length: 790,00 m
Average Length: 115,13 m Maximum height: 55,00 m
Main Power House Elevation Crest: 100,00 m
Type: Sheltered Barragem de Fechamento Esquerdo
Number of Generating Units: 18 Type of Frame / Material: Fill / Rockfill
Width of the Units Blocks: 33,00 m Total Crest Length: 1085,00 m
Mounting Area Width: 33,00 m Maximum height: 88,00 m
Total length: 849,20 m Elevation Crest: 100,00