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Landslides can disrupt hydropower by damaging plant structures and by carrying sediment into rivers, intakes, and turbines. A failure may cut generation directly, while damage to a substation or transmission link can impede delivery even if the generating equipment remains usable. The actual effect depends on which part of the system is exposed and how the site responds.
How a landslide can damage hydropower infrastructure
A slope failure can move beneath or away from a facility, removing support from a dam foundation or abutment. Material moving downhill can also strike, bury, or block a powerhouse, switchyard, intake, or other plant equipment. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) identifies dams built on existing landslides and dams affected by landslide activity during or after construction as examples of direct interaction with unstable slopes. USGS, 2006
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Damage to one component can be enough to require inspection, repair, or shutdown. A damaged intake may prevent water from entering the system; damage to a conveyance route or turbine can stop generation; damage to a switchyard or transmission infrastructure can affect delivery to the grid.
How landslide sediment affects water and equipment
Landslides deliver sediment to streams and rivers. If a river carries more material than an intake’s exclusion or settling arrangements can handle, sediment may enter pipelines and reach turbines. It can damage turbine equipment, reduce the efficiency of water diversions, and gradually take up reservoir storage. OAS/CARILEC vulnerability assessment
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Not every landslide causes these outcomes: the effects depend on the amount and character of sediment, the route it takes, and the capacity of the plant’s intake and sediment-management systems. The key risk is that sediment can affect the water path as well as the structures around it.
When a landslide blocks a river
A landslide may temporarily dam a river, creating an impoundment upstream. If the natural dam partly or fully fails, flooding, erosion, and a rapid sediment pulse can threaten infrastructure downstream.
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USGS reports that a 100-metre-high landslide dam on Costa Rica’s Río Toro partially failed in 1992. The resulting event deposited 10 metres of sediment at the site of a proposed power plant 700 metres downstream. This documents a serious downstream hazard; it does not establish how frequently landslide-dam failures affect hydropower plants. USGS, 2001
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What this means for electricity supply
Generation may decline or stop if water cannot be safely conveyed, an intake or turbine is impaired, or the powerhouse is damaged. Electricity delivery can also be affected if a switchyard or transmission link is damaged. These are distinct points of failure: a plant might be unable to generate, or it might generate but have difficulty delivering power.
The available documented cases do not establish a global total of power outages caused specifically by landslides, nor a universal probability that a hydropower plant will fail. Infrastructure exposure and consequences must be assessed site by site.
A compound-hazard example: Eklutna, Alaska
USGS reports that the 1964 Alaska earthquake and its aftershocks interrupted electric service from the Eklutna Hydroelectric Project during the early phase of the event. The project’s primary damage was at its lake intake. The report also describes destroyed underground communication and electrical systems in major Anchorage slide areas. Because the earthquake triggered a broader disaster involving slope failures, this is a compound earthquake-and-landslide example, not evidence that landslides alone caused all the reported service interruption. USGS account of the 1964 Alaska earthquake
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the dam inventory shows—and what it does not
A USGS 2006 inventory identified 254 large dams worldwide, defined in the report as at least 10 metres high, that directly interacted with landslides. The inventory was assembled through literature review, technical interviews, and field work. It includes dams built on pre-existing landslides or affected by landslide activity during or after construction; it is not a count of every hydropower asset exposed to landslides or an estimate of outage likelihood. USGS inventory and report
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Among those 254 dams, the report records 164 earthfill dams, 23 rockfill dams, and 18 earthfill-rockfill dams. It notes that these flexible dam types generally perform better on potentially unstable landslide foundations than more rigid concrete dams. That is a reported tendency, not a rule that makes one dam type safest at every site. Geology, slope activity, design, and the specific component at risk all matter. USGS, 2006
How engineers and operators reduce risk
USGS emphasizes investigating pre-existing landslides that could affect a dam foundation or abutment. Depending on site conditions, engineers may avoid unstable deposits when choosing a site or remove them where they meet foundation and abutment contacts. The report also notes that dams have sometimes been made technically and economically feasible on known landslides or remnants through preventive or remedial measures that stabilize foundations and abutments and reduce seepage to acceptable levels. These are site-specific engineering options, not a standard prescription. USGS, 2006
Risk management also has an operational side. Prevention focuses on siting, ground investigation, and treatment of foundations or abutments; resilience focuses on recognizing damage, protecting or isolating affected equipment, managing reservoir and intake conditions, and restoring generation or delivery. The appropriate measures depend on the site geology, slope activity, the component exposed, sediment or seepage pathways, and the consequences of shutdown or failure. The cited sources do not provide a universal operating checklist.
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