The “Potpeć” dam is located on the river Lim. It was built in 1967. Its catchment area is 3,605 km2. The average river discharge is 77.6 m3/s.
The “Potpeć” dam is a concrete gravity dam, 46 m high and 218 m long. In the middle part of the dam are located three spillway bays. The gated spillways have a 3,000 m3/s capacity. Energy dissipation is provided by a stilling basin located downstream of the spillway. Two bottom outlets have a total capacity of 240 m3/s.
The powerhouse is located within the dam body, next to the spillway. Three generating units are installed.
The environmentally guaranteed flow is 12 m3/s.
A pre-feasibility study to the capacity increase of the generating unit was completed in 2010. It included also an additional HPP for releasing the environmental discharge. The preliminary design of the rehabilitation was completed in 2012. The main characteristics of the “Potpeć” HPP with dam and other appurtenant structures are as follows:
- Reservoir:
| Total volume | 27.5 Mm3 |
| Live volume | 19.8 Mm3 |
| Max. OEL | 437.0 m.a.s.l. |
| Normal OEL | 435.6 m.a.s.l. |
| Min. OEL | 423.6 m.a.s.l. |
- Dam
| Type | Concrete gravity |
| Crest elevation | 439.0 m.a.s.l. |
| Height | 46 m |
- HPP
| Type | Non-diversion |
| Max. head | 38.4 m |
| Rated head | 37.6 m |
| Min. head | 25.6 m |
| Inst. flow | 165.0 m3/s |
| Inst. power | 51 MW |
| Ann. energy production | 300 GWh |
| No. of units | 3 |
| Type of turbine | Francis |
Source: IWRM Country Report for Serbia, COWI, Stucky and Jaroslav Cerni Water Institute, 2017