When the Water Sports Centre operates at full capacity, with the two whitewater channels carrying a combined total of 22 m3/s (777 ft3/s), it siphons off between 9% and 4.5% of the river's normal flow of 250 to 600 m3/s (8,830 to 21,200 ft3/s).

Full course operation represents a 4 megawatt sacrifice of electricity production at the Gabčíkovo dam 30 km farther downstream.

Although the water flowing through the slalom course represents only 1.4 megawatts of power, if it stayed in the reservoir until it reached the Gabčíkovo dam, with a higher vertical drop, its energy potential would be greater.

The "Budapest Treaty" of 1977, between Hungary and Czechoslovakia, was a plan to tame the Danube and increase its navigability with levees, dams, locks, overflow channels, and designated flood plains, and to generate hydroelectricity.

The Gabčíkovo dam, at the downstream end, contains the main navigation locks and the hydropower plant, which began operation in 1996 and now provides electricity equal to 11% of the total Slovakian demand.