Bargi hydroelectric power station

Bargi hydroelectric power station (Italian: Centrale idroelettrica di Bargi) is a hydroelectric power station in the north-central part of Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. The power station is located in Bargi, one of the villages around Lake Suviana lying upstream, in Camugnano near Bologna. It uses reservoirs created in the confluence of two right tributaries of the river Reno, which flows into the Adriatic Sea north of Ravenna). It is owned by Enel Green Power. Back in 1911, the Brasimone reservoir with a volume of 6.4 million cubic metres was created with the help of a 40-meter high brick dam. It was located on the stream of the same name, which flows from the left into the Setta River (the right tributary of the Reno), and fed the Santa Maria power plant. And in 1932, to the west of the Setta watershed, on the Limentra di Treppio river (another right tributary of Reno), the Suviana reservoir was built, originally intended only to feed its own hydroelectric power plant with a capacity of 27 MW. The 96-meter-high and 225-meter-long gravity dam built here, which required 288,000 m3 of material, holds a reservoir with a volume of 46.7 million m3 (useful volume 43.9 million m3). It can be noted that, in addition to the direct flow, an additional resource comes to this reservoir from the western direction - from the Pavana reservoir on the Limentra di Sambuca (another right tributary of Reno) and from the Molino del Pallone water intake dam on Reno itself. Due to increased energy demand, the Bargi hydroelectric power station was built in 1975 at a depth of 30 metres. The power plant uses water from both Lake Suviana and Lake Brasimone.

On April 9, 2024, an explosion at the power plant left seven workers dead and five others critically injured. The explosion occurred around 15:00 CEST at the power plant. The power plant is located about 30 metres (98 ft) underground. The prefect of Bologna, Attilio Visconti, said the explosion originated from a turbine located eight levels down and resulted in a fire, and the floor below it flooded. Enel Green Power said there was no damage to the dam's structure.

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