Hydroelectric plant La Punilla: Rio Nuble (Bio Bio Region, Chile)

Dam body, artificial catchment and adduction works

The Punilla dam is a concrete faced gravel dam that is planned to be constructed on a river basin in the Bio region of the central-south zone of Chile. The construction includes a dam 137 meters-heigh, 2 derivation tunnels, a spillway, a penstock and a hydroelectric plant built at the basis of the dam body.
The installed power capacity is of 94 MW, while the production is of about 500 GWh/year. This infrastructure aims at providing irrigation to 60.000 hectares of farmlands. In this frame, GDP-GEOMIN carried out the geological study, the geotechnical characterization, the investigation planning for the dam site and for the complementary works.