Hydropower Program

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US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS                                                                             BUILDING STRONG®

                                                                                           FACT SHEET

                                                                                   (As of September 2012)

AUTHORIZATION: Section 216 of the 1996 Water Resources and Development Act (WRDA 1996), Pub. L. 104-303; as amended by Section 212 of the 2000 Water Resources and Development Act (WRDA 2000), Pub. L. 106-541.                                                                                                                             

TYPE OF PROJECT: Turbine and Power Train Replacement, Rehabilitation and / or Modernization

LOCATION: Cumberland River and Tributaries

 

CONGRESSIONAL INTEREST: Senator: Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, Lamar Alexander, Bob Corker; Representative: Edward “Ed” Whitfield, Harold “Hal” Rogers, Marsha Blackburn, Jim Cooper, Diane Black, Scott DesJarlais

NON-FEDERAL SPONSOR: Preference Customers under federal law relating to the marketing of power

 

BACKGROUND:

·   The Nashville District operates 9 multi-purpose projects with 28 generators with 914 megawatts of capacity which produce about 3.8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year.  Sales of this electricity yields about 40 million dollars each year in revenue for the U.S. Treasury. 

 

·   Southeastern Power Administration (SEPA) was created in 1950 by the Secretary of the Interior to carry out the functions assigned to the Secretary by the Flood Control Act of 1944.  In 1977, SEPA was transferred to the newly created Department of Energy.  SEPA, headquartered in Elberton, Georgia, has the responsibility to market the electric power and energy generated at Corps of Engineers’ hydropower projects in the states of West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky.  SEPA markets this power to customers in all of these states, as well as to customers in southern Illinois.

 

·   SEPA’s mission is to market federal hydroelectric power at the lowest possible cost to public bodies and cooperatives (preference customers) in the southeastern United States.  Since SEPA does not own transmission lines, it must contract with other utilities to provide transmission (“wheeling”) services for the federal power.

 

·   SEPA partners with Nashville District (LRN), and Lakes and Rivers Division (LRD) through “Team Cumberland”, an association of customer, Corps and SEPA representatives that meet periodically.

 

IMPORTANCE: Benefits: One of the few authorized purposes of our projects that returns money to the Federal Government and that provides reliable and affordable “green” power for the region.  Impacts:  Increased unscheduled outages due to age of equipment and lack of funding for rehabilitations will lead to greater cost burden on rate payers and taxpayers.

 

STATUS:

· Executed Three Short-Term and One Long-Term MOAs

 

·  Authorized $120 million in Section 212 Program Funding

 

BUDGET ($): Estimated project costs are shown below.  Corps has expended some $19M to date

 

Note¹ – Ultimately fully funded by Hydropower Customers whether by appropriations or through the Section 212 Program.

 

SCHEDULE:

FY2012 Completed Work:  $10.0 million

FY2013 Scheduled Work:  $11.0 million (approximate)

FY2014 Presidents Budget: 0

Completion:  Continued funding is subject to participation of the hydropower preference customer groups.

For more information regarding the Hydropower Program, contact David Mistakovich, CELRN-OP-H, phone: (615) 736-7974, email:  David.Mistakovich@usace.army.mil.