Caniçada Dam

The Caniçada Dam (Barragem da Caniçada/HICA-Hidroeléctrica do Cávado-Caniçada; ) is a concrete arch dam on the Cávado River, the civil parish of Parada do Bouro, in the municipality of Vieira do Minho, in the Portuguese Norte (district of Braga). It is owned by Companhia Portuguesa de Produção de Electricidade (CPPE).

History
The dam was completed and began functioning in 1955.

In 196, approval was obtained to begin a program of observation of the dam, as proposed by the Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (Civil Engineering National Laboratory).

Architecture
Caniçada Dam is a 76 m tall (height above foundation) and 246 m long arch dam with a crest altitude of 163 m. The volume of the dam is 90000 m3. The dam features a spillway with 4 gates over the dam with a maximum discharge 1700 m3/ft3 per second, and one bottom outlet with maximum discharge 142 m3 per second.

Reservoir
At full reservoir level of 163 m the reservoir of the dam has a surface area of 783 km2 of 6.89 (5.78) km2 and a total capacity of 170.6 mio. m³; its active capacity is 159.3 (144,4) mio. m³. With the 144,4 mio. m³ water 32 GWh can be produced.

Power plant
The hydroelectric power plant went operational in 1954. It is operated by EDP. The plant has a nameplate capacity of 62 (60  or 100 ) MW. Its average annual generation is 337.4 (283, 345 or 346 ) GWh. The power station contains 2 Francis turbine-generators with 31 MW (34 MVA) each in an underground powerhouse 134 m below the surface. The turbine rotation is 300 rpm. The minimum hydraulic head is 77 m, the maximum 121 m. Maximum flow per turbine is 34 m³/s. The turbines and generators were provided by Voith.