Benmore Dam
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Benmore Dam is the largest dam within the Waitaki power scheme on the borders of Otago and Canterbury regions in New Zealand's South Island. Benmore Dam is also the starting point of the high voltage DC inter-island 500 MW power connection.
In the picture of Lake Benmore and the Benmore Dam (to the right), one can see the lighter turquoise tint of the glacial water in the lake's northern branch (top left in the picture). The lighter colour is caused by fine silt carried down from the Tasman Glacier.
At the Benmore Dam there is also the static inverter plant of the HVDC Inter-Island.
Dam core is impermeable, clay like gravel supported by two massive shoulders of river gravel. The dam is the largest earth-filled water-retaining structure in New Zealand.
It has a volume of 12.5 million cubic metres which is about 1.5 times as much water as Wellington harbour.
The spillway can cope with 3,400 cubic metres of water per second, about 10 times the mean river flow.
Construction began in 1958. The station was commissioned in 1965.
Southern end of High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) link which joins the North and South Island electricity systems
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