List of hydroelectric power station failures

This list is concerned with severe and abnormal power outages which caused major power failures due to damage to the hydro site itself. Whilst at some point, every hydroelectric plant trips some generating units off the line it is not normal for an entire large plant to come of line. These minor trips which involve the routine and normal opening and closing of breakers do not involve damage to the site and cause no serious inconvenience to the connected grid or users and are not the concern of this list. When large hydroelectric power stations output suddenly ceases entirely due to failure of all the generators or the electrical connections then this can cause an extremely large and sudden loss of electric power with catastrophic effects on power users and the connected grid. Such failure can be quite independent of the structural integrity of the dam, but dam failure itself can of course also terminate power output. Special consideration must be given to electric grids powered to a large degree by such dams.

List of failures

• Herdecke on the RUHR, 0.132 GW power generation loss, 1943
• Mohne Dam on the RUHR, 5 MW power generation loss,1500 fatalities, due to enemy bombing, 1943
• Banqiao Dam, 18 GW power generation loss,dam failed by overtopping, 1975
• Itaipu Dam, 18 GW power generation loss, 2008
• Sayano–Shushenskaya Dam, 6 GW power generation loss, 75 fatalities, due to turbine failure, 2009
• Manitoba Hydro Grand Rapids Unit 1 head cover failure, 452 MW loss, March 1992
• Taum Sauk Hydroelectric Power Station pumped storage failed by overtopping,450 MW , 2005

See also

• Dam failure
• Hydraulic engineering
• Hydroelectricity