The Tajo de la Encantada power plant was completed, as we know it today, in 1978. At the outlet of the Tajo de la Encantada, in El Chorro, the Hidroeléctrica Company has installed one of the largest reversible hydroelectric power plants in Spain, the Salto de la Encantada. There are only eight like it in all of Spain and only one in Andalusia, the Guillena in Seville.
The Tajo de la Encantada hydroelectric power station, known by everyone as El Chorro, has some peculiarities that make it special among those in the province of Malaga.
The upper reservoir of this jump is located in the Villaverde Dam, where the ruins of Bobastro.
Villaverde Dam 
Villaverde Dam 
Villaverde Dam
Built below the water level with a height equivalent to a 15-storey building, it always uses the same volume of water, pumping it between the lower and upper reservoirs. The purpose of this power station is to produce electricity during peak hours by turbine-pumping the water in the upper reservoir. On the other hand, when consumption decreases, to avoid overloads in the network, the water from the Tajo de la Encantada Reservoir is pumped to the upper reservoir with the consequent consumption of electricity. Both reservoirs, the upper and the lower one, are connected by a pipe through which the pumped water circulates in one direction or another.
To ensure electricity production even in years of drought, the Pantano del Chorro was built on the Turón River in 1920. Downstream, the Gaitanejo Reservoir was completed in 1927, to also regulate the contributions from the Guadalteba and Guadalhorce rivers. On May 21, 1921, King Alfonso XIII laid the last stone of the El Chorro Reservoir and traveled along the Camino de los Balconcillos to the town of El Chorro. Since then it was called Caminito del Rey. For his work, the King granted Rafael de Benjumea the title of Count of Guadalhorce. Since 1953 the first reservoir has had this name.
El Chorro Reservoir 
The Enchanted Gorge Dam 
The Enchanted Gorge Dam
Endesa Investment
A few years ago, ENDESA invested around €150.000 in technological improvements to the facility, which is one of the 8 in Spain that operate as a pumping station, and is the largest in Andalusia.
This plant currently provides more than 120 jobs in the region, operates for more than 8.000 hours a year and has approximately 1700 starts per year.
