After 50 days, the Itaipu plant opened the spillway again this week. The intermittent spillage is expected to continue at least until the weekend. The last opening had been recorded on July 3rd. At the beginning of the year, the plant broke a record for tourist visits.
The measure was adopted to drain excess water, caused by excessive rainfall in the region that supplies the reservoir (incremental basin). It's been a long time since it rained so heavily on the border between Brazil and Paraguay.
Between Thursday and Sunday (18th to 21st), it rained 93 millimeters (mm) in the reservoir area and 100 millimeters over the basin. This is the wettest August since 2011.
In 22 days, the Itaipu Hydrology service alone recorded 91 mm of accumulated rainfall at its meteorological station, located at the plant's airport, in Hernandárias, on the Paraguayan side of the binational. Only between Thursday and Sunday (18th to 21st) there were 65 mm. Despite the large volume of precipitation, the situation is normal, with no risk of local flooding for now.
This Tuesday (23), the spill in the right gutter was 724 cubic meters of water per second (m³/s), equivalent to half the average flow of the Iguaçu Falls, which varies between 1.200 m³/s and 1.500 m³/ s.
The tendency is for the volume of water to increase gradually, reaching a peak of up to 3.000 m³/s (or three million liters of water per second). During the day, runoff should remain at around 1.400 m³/s. From Thursday to Sunday, anyone passing by the plant may find the spillway open at certain times.
Even with the excess water drained, energy generation continues to rise in Itaipu. This Tuesday, the plant had already produced almost 18% more compared to the same period in 2015. This year, the binational has already generated a total of 66.543.812 megawatt-hours (MWh), compared to 56.440.054 MWh, among January 1st and August 23rd, 2015. The target of 100 million MWh per year has never been as close to being achieved as it is now in 2016.
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