The Chester hydroelectric plant is always producing 800 kw of power and here’s a look inside
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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.
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.
