It uses the difference in height between the artificial lakes of Villefranche-de-Panat and Pareloup on the Lévézou plateau and the river 500 m below.

It is part of the complex system that connects the rivers Alrance, Ceor, Viaur, Bage and Violou with the Tarn.

In addition to its 440 MW generating capacity it houses a small pumping station that can return 6.6 m³/s of water from the Tarn to its header reservoir.

It is a landscape of gentle valleys, drained to the north by the Ceor, Viaur, Bage and Violou which flow towards Rodez, and to the south by the Alrance and the Ruisseau de Asseynes which fall steeply into the Tarn.

To the south, exploiting a geological fault is the River Tarn which is at 265 m altitude, and to the south of the river the land rises again to over 600 m. The area is called Les Raspes de Tarn- 30 km to the east is the A75 autoroute and the Viaduc de Millau which crosses the Tarn and Dourdan at the level of the plateau.

The dam at Pareloup is 43.45 m high and 232 m long- it is 15.87 metres thick at its base, tapering to 2.77 m at the rim.

It is 91% efficient delivering 275 MW (MVA) of electrical energy to the grid at 15.5 kV – that is nominally 10,245 kA.