“The crucial part when building a dam and hydroelectric plant, is the construction site’s canteen. It is of fundamental importance.”. These are the words of an experienced project manager who viewed as a priority the quality of the food at the site erected in the middle of nowhere by the dam’s builders. For him, it was just as important to the success of the project as was the expertise brought to manage the financial, geological, logistical, technical and meteorological challenges. 

This rule applied to the Cerro del Águila hydropower dam, built in 2016 by Webuild some 270 kilometres from Lima, Peru. The location of the dam on the Mantaro River would be chosen where geological studies had yet to be made. Access to it was virtually impossible. It would eventually be up the mountain at 1,200-1,600 metres above sea level. Some 190 kilometres of roads were built in the Huancavelica region of the Peruvian Andes.

The arch dam made of concrete is 88 metres high with a base that is 63 metres long. Its crest measures 264 metres. Its 557-megawatt power plant is the country’s second largest. The “invisible” works tell the story of record numbers, like the intake tunnel that brings water to the turbines that is 5.7 kilometres long, with a section of 8.7 metres by 10.5 metres, or the throwback system, made of a pressure tunnel with a section equal to the water supply system and 1.9 kilometres long, to the underground power station measuring 46 metres in width, 86 metres in length and 18 metres in height. The clean and sustainable electricity that it produces serves more than five million people.