Tău Reservoir

Tău Reservoir is a retention lake formed behind Barajul Tău, situated in Cheile Tăului at the confluence of the Sebeș and Bistra rivers, in Alba County, approximately 2 km downstream from the village of Tău, comuna Șugag. The dam is a double-arch reinforced concrete structure, 78 m in height and 178 m in crest length, commissioned in 1984. It is managed by Hidroelectrica. The lake covers approximately 81 hectares at normal retention level and has a storage capacity of 21 million cubic metres. It is fed both by the flow of the Sebeș river and by waters conveyed through the secondary Dobra diversion (7.3 km), which collects 1 cubic metre per second from the Dobra and Șugag intakes. The waters processed by the Gâlceag Hydroelectric Power Plant — an underground run-of-river plant with an installed capacity of 150 MW — discharge into Tău Reservoir. The Gâlceag plant forms the first stage of the hydropower development on the Sebeș valley and harnesses the energy potential of the Oașa reservoir, having been in operation since 1980. The lake and dam are accessible from DN67C, the road connecting Sebeș to Novaci via Transalpina.