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The Chester hydroelectric plant
is always producing 800 kw of power and here's a look inside
The hydroelectric dam and power
plant in Chester serves customers throughout Teton Valley, Fremont,
Madison and Jefferson Counties. See how the plant generates power in
the video above. | Photo courtesy Ted Austin, Video by Jordan Wood,
EastIdahoNews.com
CHESTER – On the bank of the Henrys Fork
in Chester is a hydroelectric dam owned by Fall River Electric. Next
to it is a power plant that generates 800 kilowatts of electricity
every second — enough to power about 500 homes.
The operation benefits tens of thousands
of people throughout eastern Idaho and Fall River Electric gave
EastIdahoNews.com a tour to explain how it works. Watch it in
the video player above.
In a conversation with EastIdahoNews.com,
company spokesman Ted Austin says the Chester Dam is one of four hydro
dams owned by Fall River Electric. About 85% of the power on its grid
is hydropower, of which 15% comes directly from its four power plants.
The dam also includes a fish ladder,
which helps protect the fish population.
The 457-foot concrete dam was built 84
years ago, but the hydro dam and plant wasn’t completed until 2014.
“Fall River installed an inflatable
rubber dam atop the existing concrete structure to raise the level of
the river above the dam, thus allowing for greater water flow into the
three turbines that generate electricity,” a flier about the dam says.
The hydroelectric dam in Chester. |
Ted Austin
Hydroelectric supervisor Chad Johnson
says there were several reasons why the hydro portion was added.
“One reason was to provide more internal
power production for Fall River customers and to keep costs down,”
Johnson says.
An influx of people to the area also
played a role.
“Everybody turns the lights on (and they
expect it to work),” says Johnson. “Being able to provide power to
those customers on a continual basis (is important).”
The dam was originally built in 1938 to
help control the flow of the Snake River and divert water for
irrigation purposes. Fall River Electric was created as a member-owned
utility around the same time to make power more affordable for farmers
in the area.
“It was too expensive for investor-owned
utilities to do that. Farmers in the Ashton area decided the only way
they were going to get power to their farms is to create a
cooperative,” Austin says.
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In the future, Johnson would like the
ability to have a black start for the hydroelectric plant — the
ability to operate during a power outage.
“If all the power lines went down and all
the power was out, (the idea is to) power up certain power production
facilities off grid and push that power back out to help other plants
come back online,” he says.
That’s still a few years away.
Meanwhile, Johnson is happy to be working
at the power plant and looks forward to many more years of providing
power for customers.
Ted Austin
Green Play Ammonia™, Yielder® NFuel Energy.
Spokane, Washington. 99212
www.exactrix.com
509 995 1879 cell, Pacific.
exactrix@exactrix.com
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