Xacbal Dam

The Xacbal Dam is a reinforced concrete gravity dam and power plant spanning the Xacbal River in the municipality of Chajul, Guatemala.A 10.35 m high dam diverts the river's water flow to a sand filter and on through an open conduction channel to a daily regulation reservoir located outside the river channel. A 4.7 km conduction tunnel with at diameter of 4.65 m, directs the water through a 615 m long pressure pipe to the power house. The water is diverted back to the Xacbal river channel.The plant has 2 x 47 MW Francis vertical axis turbines with an installed capacity of 94 MW. A 120 km transmission line was built to connect the power plant to the national grid. Annual power production is estimated at 486 GWh.