Sogamoso Dam

The Sogamoso Dam is a concrete-face rock-fill dam on the Sogamoso River in northern Colombia. It is located 30 km west of Bucaramanga in Santander Department and 285 km north of Bogotá. The primary purpose of the dam is hydroelectric power generation and its power plant has an installed capacity of 820 MW which increased Colombia's generating capacity by 10 percent. Construction on the dam began in February 2009 and its first 273 MW Francis turbine-generator was commissioned on 1 December 2014. The other two generators were operational by 20 December 2014. The US$1.74 billion dam and power plant is owned by ISAGEN. INGETEC designed the dam in the 1990s and Impreglio was awarded the contract for construction.

The dam is 190 m tall and withholds a 4800 e6m3 reservoir. The power plant houses four 273 MW Francis turbine-generators. Its spillway is located on its left bank and controlled by four radial gates. It has a maximum discharge of 17100 m3/s. The dam has been the subject of protests among locals as it relocated 160 families and negatively impact the livelihood of miners within the reservoir zone and fishers downstream. Relocation of the residents, construction of a new bridges and roads will cost US$202 million. A 100 m wide protected area was established around the reservoir.