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THE ROLE of HYDROPOWER DEVELOPMENT
in the U.S. ENERGY EQUATION

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• Hydropower has played an important part in the development of this Nation's electric power industry. Both small and large hydropower developments were instrumental in the early expansion of the electric power industry.
  
  
• Thirty to forty years ago, hydroelectric plants supplied as much as 40 percent of the electric energy produced. Although the amount of energy produced by this means has steadily increased, the amount produced by other types of powerplants has increased at a faster rate.
  
  
• Today, hydropower, including pumped storage, supplies over 10 percent of the electrical generating capacity of the United States. Coal-fired steam generation is the number one source of electricity in the United States. Hydroelectric pumped storage shows up as a negative factor in electricity production as more electricity is used to pump the water to the upper reservoirs than is produced when the pumped-storage units are used to generate electricity. The benefit of pumped-storage is the ability to effectively shift capacity from periods of low energy use to periods of high energy use.
  
  
• Hydropower is the primary contributor of renewable energy in the United States.
  
  
• The costs of generating hydropower are the lowest of all sources of electricity
  
  
• The hydroelectricity currently produced each year in the United States. is equivalent to nearly 500 million barrels of oil. This presently represents a value for existing hydrogeneration of about $9 billion annually.
  
  
• Hydropower generation is not a contributor to atmospheric emissions, which are a growing problem on both national and global levels.
  
  
• Hydropower is presently the most efficient way to produce energy with each kilowatt-hour of hydroelectricity being produced at an efficiency more than twice that of any competing energy resource.
  
  
• Only 3 percent of the around 80,000 existing dams in the United States have hydropower facilities.
  
  
• Potential sites for all types of hydropower exist that would double the U.S. hydroelectric production if they could be developed. However, a variety of restraints exist on this development, some natural and some imposed by our society. The natural restraints include such things as occasional unfavorable terrain for dams. Other restraints include disagreements about who should develop the resource or the resulting changes in environmental conditions. Often, other developments already exist at sites otherwise suitable for hydropower generation. Finding solutions to the problems imposed by natural restraints demands extensive engineering efforts. Sometimes no solution is possible, or is so expensive that the entire project becomes impractical. Solutions to the societal issues are frequently much more difficult to resolve and the costs are far greater than those imposed by nature. Developing the full potential of hydropower will require consideration and coordination of many varied factors.

Utilities
Hydroelectric Generating Capacity (Nameplate)
Including Pumped Storage
by Census Division and State - 12/31/2002

Census Division               State		Number of Plants	Number of Generators		Pumped Storage Capability (Megawatts)	Conventional Hydro Capability (Megawatts)	Total Hydro Capability (Megawatts)
			Pumped- Storage	Conventional Hydro
New England		189	10	589	1513.5	2080.5	3594
	Connecticut	15	2	39	7	143	150
	Maine	56	0	256	0	718	718
	Massachusetts	34	8	83	1506.5	396.5	1903
	New Hampshire	35	0	94	0	514	514
	Rhode Island	3	0	6	0	4	4
	Vermont	46	0	111	0	305	305
Middle Atlantic		182	30	448	2909	5006	7915
	New Jersey	3	3	7	400	13	413
	New York	160	16	381	1240	4166	5406
	Pennsylvania	19	11	60	1269	827	2096
East North Central		144	6	542	1978.8	888.2	2867
	Illinois	7	0	23	0	21	21
	Indiana	5	0	21	0	59	59
	Michigan	59	6	233	1978.8	150.2	2129
	Ohio	5	0	13	0	164	164
	Wisconsin	68	0	252	0	494	494
West North Central		52	9	179	600.4	3250.6	3851
	Iowa	4	0	23	0	131	131
	Kansas	1	0	7	0	2	2
	Minnesota	25	0	82	0	176	176
	Missouri	8	9	20	600.4	599.6	1200
	Nebraska	9	0	16	0	167	167
	North Dakota	1	0	5	0	497	497
	South Dakota	4	0	26	0	1678	1678
South Atlantic		147	35	459	6028.7	7578.3	13,607
	Delaware	0	0	0	0	0	0
	District of Columbia	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Florida	2	0	6	0	50	50
	Georgia	37	9	121	1397.8	2381.2	3779
	Maryland	2	0	13	0	530	530
	North Carolina	40	1	104	95	1913	2008
	South Carolina	33	16	117	2188	1415	3603
	Virginia	24	9	73	2347.9	1054.1	3402
	West Virginia	9	0	31	0	235	235
East South Central		57	4	203	1530	6430	7960
	Alabama	21	0	89	0	3002	3002
	Kentucky	7	0	30	0	821	821
	Mississippi	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Tennessee	29	4	84	1530	2607	4137
West South Central		54	7	140	316	3045	3361
	Arkansas	16	1	47	28	1388	1416
	Louisiana	1	0	8	0	192	192
	Oklahoma	11	6	32	288	768	1056
	Texas	26	0	53	0	697	697
Mountain		196	11	451	702.6	10,492.4	11,195
	Arizona	13	6	38	194.1	2724.9	2919
	Colorado	37	5	50	508.5	697.5	1206
	Idaho	71	0	169	0	2665	2665
	Montana	21	0	83	0	2717	2717
	Nevada	6	0	18	0	1052	1052
	New Mexico	5	0	9	0	82	82
	Utah	29	0	56	0	254	254
	Wyoming	14	0	28	0	300	300
Pacific Contiguous		376	36	915	3666.6	41,294.4	44,961
	California	255	30	442	3352.6	10,741.4	14,094
	Oregon	64	0	186	0	9089	9089
	Washington	57	6	287	314	21,437	21,778
Pacific Noncontiguous		34	0	66	0	419	419
	Alaska	25	0	51	0	396	396
	Hawaii	9	0	15	0	23	23
United States Total		1431	148	3992	19,245.6	80,484.4	99,730

The above data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration as of December 31, 2002

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Revised October 12, 2004             Hydropower Site Map             Help