engineering

Misicuni Dam

Misicuni Dam is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Misicuni Dam rather than just read about it. In short: The Misicuni Multiplepurpose Project, better known as the Misicuni Dam, is a concrete-face rock-fill dam constructed on the Misicuni River about 35 km (22 mi) northwest of the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia. The dam will divert water from the Misicuni River to the Cochabamba Valley for several purposes to include providing water for irrigation and municipal water uses.

Key takeaways

Misicuni Dam belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Misicuni Dam to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Misicuni Dam from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Misicuni Multiplepurpose Project, better known as the Misicuni Dam, is a concrete-face rock-fill dam constructed on the Misicuni River about 35 km (22 mi) northwest of the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia. The dam will divert water from the Misicuni River to the Cochabamba Valley for several purposes to include providing water for irrigation and municipal water uses. In addition, the dam has an associated 120 MW hydroelectric power station, powered by 3 turbines 40 MW each. Construction on the dam began in June 2009 but was halted in November 2013 due to contract disputes. The company finished the construction and is started the operations in September 2017.

Characteristics and costs The project has three components:

Phase I includes an already completed 20 km tunnel with the capacity to provide 2 cubic meters per second of drinking water and 1 cubic meter per second for irrigation to Cochabamba and the surrounding areas. Its cost was US$84 million. Phase II includes a 120-meter-high concrete-face rock-fill dam with a 460-hectare reservoir with a storage capacity of 154 million cubic meters, as well as pipelines, pumping stations, a water treatment plant and an irrigation network to irrigate 4,000 hectares (under construction as of 2013). Its cost was also estimated at US$84 million, Phase III includes a hydropower plant with an installed capacity of 120 MW at an estimated cost of US$200 million (under construction since April 2010). Water will be diverted from the reservoir through a 3.8 km (2.4 mi) long penstock to the plant. The dam will be the highest and largest dam in Bolivia. Misicuni project director Ramiro Saniz said in 2009 that the water from the Misicuni river is not sufficient to fill the reservoir and that other sources are needed.

Background and construction progress The public company in charge of developing the project is Proyecto Misicuni, an entity created by law in 1987. The contractor for the US$90 million dam component is the Consorcio Hidroelectrico Misicuni (CHM). The Misicuni consortium, led with 51 percent ownership by Grandi Lavori Fincosit S.p.A. of Italy, was the sole bidder for the project. Bidding was limited to Italian companies and CHM was the only company to submit a bid. The consortium also includes Bolivian, Colombian and Venezuelan firms. The dam component was originally expected to be completed in 2014. However, in November 2013 the contract was canceled amid delays because CHM "failed to pay for pension funds, health insurances and other labour benefits and to contract key technical personnel."

Benefits The tunnel provides 4.5-7.5 million cubic meters of water per year to Cochabamba since 2005, depending on whether the flow of the river is low or high and supplying about 10 percent of the city's drinking water. Once the dam will be completed, the amount of drinking water available will increase tenfold to 63 million cubic meters per year.

Environmental and social impact 1365 people live in the reservoir area that will be flooded and will be relocated. The Tunari National Park will also be affected.

Financing The dam is partially financed by the Italian government through a 25 million Euro loan and the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF). Total funding from Italy for Phased II and III is USD 93 million. Bolivia will have to pay back the loan over in 20 years with a 0.10% interest rate. The construction of the penstock, hydropower plant and power transmission line is funded by a US$101 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank approved in 2009. These works were expected to be completed by 2015, but were only 30 percent completed as of April 2013.

Climate

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Misicuni Dam

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Misicuni Dam claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Misicuni Dam before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Misicuni Dam ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Misicuni Dam

In research: Misicuni Dam appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Misicuni Dam in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Misicuni Dam is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Buildings and structures in Cochabamba Department, Concrete-face rock-fill dams, Dams in Bolivia, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Misicuni Dam outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Misicuni Dam in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Misicuni Dam means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Misicuni Dam out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Misicuni Dam in simple terms?

Why does Misicuni Dam matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Misicuni Dam?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Misicuni Dam.