Brno Reservoir

The Brno Reservoir, previously known as the Kníničky Reservoir is a dam on the Svratka River right outside the city of Brno, Czech Republic. The construction of a levee on the 56th river kilometre of the Svratka River, together with flooding of a valley with the Kníničky village in, created the Brno Reservoir. The reservoir used to serve as a water reserve for Brno, a place for recreation, and also a source of electric power. Administrator of the Brno Reservoir is a state-owned enterprise Povodí Moravy, s.p.Basic InformationThe idea of creating a dam on the Svratka River began at the beginning of the 20th century; however, its reconstruction was realized as late as 1936–1940. The main investor was the then Ministry of Public Works. Apart from Brno, it was also “the Moravian-Silesian Land” (a former territory), which took a financial interest of 25% in it.The water storage begins under the weir at the Tejkalův Mill in Veverská Bítýška and spans nearly 10 km to the dyke on the border of the Brno-Bystrc and Brno-Kníničky districts. The flooded area covers 259 ha. The inactive storage reaches up to 7.6 million m³; the reserve space is 10.8 million m³. The concrete solid dam is 7.14 m wide in corona and 120 m long. It rises 23.5 m above the bottom at an altitude of 233.72 m.Hydroelectricity uses one Kaplan turbine with an output of 2.88 MW (the installed output is 3.1 MW). In case of an island operation (that is, independently, disconnected from network system, such as in case of a breakdown of the electric power transmission), the turbine can be used to set a gas combustion turbine in the heating plant “Červený mlýn” in motion. A small hydro in Brno-Komín serves as a buffer tank.