| Frank D. Comerford Dam | |
|---|---|
| Official name | Frank D. Comerford Dam |
| Country | United States |
| Location | Monroe, New Hampshire Barnet, Vermont |
| Coordinates | 44°19′31″N72°0′03″W / 44.32528°N 72.00083°W |
| Purpose | Power |
| Status | Operational |
| Construction began | 1928 |
| Opening date | 1930 |
| Owner(s) | Hydro-Québec [1] |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Type of dam | Gravity dam |
| Impounds | Connecticut River |
| Height | 170 feet (52 m) |
| Length | 2,253 feet (687 m) |
| Elevation at crest | 647 feet (197 m) |
| Spillways | 1 |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Comerford Reservoir |
| 140 Megawatts capacity at 13,300 cfs discharge | |
Frank D. Comerford Dam is an International Style concrete dam in the Fifteen Mile Falls of the Connecticut River, on the border between the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Vermont. [2] The dam is near Monroe, New Hampshire and Barnet, Vermont. Construction began in 1928 and was completed in 1931. The dam and the power plant were acquired by a subsidiary of Hydro-Québec from Great River Hydro, LLC, in October 2022. [1]
Comerford Reservoir is the reservoir created behind the dam, named after Frank D. Comerford, president of the Connecticut River Power Company and the New England Power Company.
Hydroelectric power plants have the ability to vary the amount of power generated, depending on the demand. Steam turbine power plants are not as easily "throttled" because of the amount of thermodynamic inertia contained in their systems.
In what would become the Connecticut River, running water wore out a rocky gorge 40 feet (12 m) to 100 feet (30 m) deep in pre-glacial days. The result was a gentle gradient, 10 feet (3 m) to the 1 mile (1.6 km). The drop is 320 feet (98 m) over 15 miles (24 km). The area was called "Fifteen Mile Falls."
On September 30, 1930, President Herbert Hoover remotely initiated the generation of electricity from Comerford Dam, then New England's largest single hydroelectric development. This was the first in a series, harnessing hydroelectric power in the United States in the 1930s. The power was sent 126 miles (203 km) for use in Massachusetts. [3] At the time of its construction, it was the largest "retaining wall" in the United States, representing more than 90,000 cubic yards (69,000 m3) of concrete. [4]
In 2005, USGen New England sold the dam to TransCanada Hydro Northeast Inc. [5] The dam and the power plant were acquired by Great River Hydro, LLC, in April 2017 [6] and by Hydro-Québec in October 2022. [1]
A camp was constructed in East Barnet, Vermont, in 1928 for 1,500 workers. The camp contained its own housing, commissary, theater (which substituted as a church on Sunday), and a hospital. It had its own hockey and basketball teams. 120 people prepared and served meals. 1,300 men worked the day shift from 7:00 to 6:00 with one hour off for lunch. 300 men worked the night shift. [7]
Construction materials were supplied on a special 3-mile (4.8 km) railroad track built to the site.
The reservoir has a capacity of 32,270 acre feet and has a full supply level of 647 feet (197 m) above mean sea level. The gravity dam is 2,253 feet (687 m) long and made of concrete and earth. Four steel penstocks feed water to the powerhouse, where four Francis turbines rated 54,200 horsepower each produce a combined capacity of 140 megawatts at a combined discharge flow of 13,300 cubic feet per second. The remaining structure is an 850-foot-long (260 m) spillway which is used to discharge water excess to generating requirements. [8]
The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for 406 miles (653 km) through four states. It rises 300 yards south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Island Sound. Its watershed encompasses 11,260 square miles (29,200 km2), covering parts of five U.S. states and one Canadian province, via 148 tributaries, 38 of which are major rivers. It produces 70% of Long Island Sound's fresh water, discharging at 18,400 cubic feet (520 m3) per second.
Deerfield River is a river that runs for 76 miles (122 km) from southern Vermont through northwestern Massachusetts to the Connecticut River. The Deerfield River was historically influential in the settlement of western Franklin County, Massachusetts, and its namesake town. It is the Connecticut River's second-longest tributary in Massachusetts, 2.1 miles (3.4 km) shorter than Metropolitan Springfield's Westfield River.
The Falls of Foyers are two waterfalls on the River Foyers, which feeds Loch Ness, in Highland, Scotland, United Kingdom. They are located on the lower portion of the River Foyers, and consist of the upper falls, with a drop of 46 feet (14 m) and the lower falls, which drop 98 feet (30 m).
Lake Chelan Dam officially known as the Lake Chelan Hydroelectric Project is located approximately 32 miles (51 km) north of the city of Wenatchee in Chelan County. The dam is located at the lower or southeasterly end of 50.4 miles long Lake Chelan, and is within the limits of the city of Chelan. The powerhouse is located near the community of Chelan Falls. The reservoir has 677,400 acre-feet (835,600,000 m3) of usable water storage. The 10-year average generation for the Project is 365,000 megawatt hours.
The Robert-Bourassa generating station, formerly known as La Grande-2 (LG-2), is a hydroelectric power station on the La Grande River that is part of Hydro-Québec's James Bay Project in Canada. The station can generate 5,616 MW and its 16 units were gradually commissioned between 1979 and 1981. Annual generation is in the vicinity of 26500 GWh.
McIndoes Reservoir is a 545-acre (2.21 km2) impoundment on the Connecticut River on the boundary between Vermont and New Hampshire in northern New England. The dam forming the reservoir lies between the communities of McIndoe Falls, Vermont, and Monroe, New Hampshire. Monroe Road crosses the reservoir 600 feet (180 m) north (upstream) of the dam, leading west 0.2 miles (0.3 km) to U.S. Route 5 in McIndoe Falls and east the same distance to New Hampshire Route 135 in the center of Monroe. The next river crossing upstream is a bridge carrying the North Monroe Road, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of McIndoe Falls.
The York Haven Dam is a low head, run-of-the river, dam and hydroelectric plant that is located on the Susquehanna River in the United States.
The Westfield River is a major tributary of the Connecticut River located in the Berkshires and Pioneer Valley regions of western Massachusetts. With four major tributary branches that converge west of the city of Westfield, it flows 78.1 miles (125.7 km) before its confluence with the Connecticut River at Agawam, across from the city of Springfield's Metro Center district. Known for its whitewater rapids and scenic beauty, the Westfield River provides over 50 miles (80 km) of whitewater canoeing and kayaking, in addition to one of the largest roadless wilderness areas remaining in the Commonwealth.
Croton Dam is an earth-filled embankment dam and powerplant complex on the Muskegon River in Croton Township, Newaygo County, Michigan. It was built in 1907 under the direction of William D. Fargo by the Grand Rapids - Muskegon Power Company, a predecessor of Consumers Energy. The 40-foot-high (12 m) dam impounds 7.2 billion U.S. gallons (6 billion imp. gal/27 billion L) of water in its 1,209-acre (489 ha) reservoir and is capable of producing 8,850 kilowatts at peak outflow. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The Passumpsic River is a 22.7-mile-long (36.5 km) tributary of the Connecticut River, in Vermont. Though primarily a Caledonia County river, it is the only river to flow through all three counties of the Northeast Kingdom.
New Exchequer Dam is a concrete–faced, rock-fill dam on the Merced River in central California in the United States. It forms Lake McClure, which impounds the river for irrigation and hydroelectric power production and has a capacity of more than 1,000,000 acre-feet (1.2 km3). The Merced Irrigation District (MID) operates the dam and was also responsible for its construction.
Richard B. Russell Dam is a concrete-gravity and embankment dam located on the Savannah River at the border of South Carolina and Georgia, creating Richard B. Russell Lake. The dam was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1974 and 1985 for the purposes of flood control, hydroelectricity, recreation, additional stream flow regulation, water supply, and fish and wildlife management. The concrete structure of the dam spans 1,904 feet (580 m) and rises 210 feet (64 m) above the riverbed, housing a hydro-power plant with an installed 600 megawatts (800,000 hp) capacity. The Richard B. Russell Dam is the final large dam completed by the U.S. Army Corps in the Savannah River Basin and lies 30 miles downstream from the Hartwell Dam (1962) and 37 miles (60 km) upstream from the J. Strom Thurmond Dam (1954).
Hauser Dam is a hydroelectric straight gravity dam on the Missouri River about 14 miles (23 km) northeast of Helena, Montana, in the United States. The original dam, built between 1905 and 1907, failed in 1908 and caused severe flooding and damage downstream. A second dam was built on the site in 1908 and opened in 1911 and comprises the present structure. The current Hauser Dam is 700 feet (210 m) long and 80 feet (24 m) high. The reservoir formed by the dam, Hauser Lake, is 25 miles (40 km) long, has a surface area of 3,800 acres (1,500 ha), and has a storage capacity of 98,000 acre-feet (121,000,000 m3) of water when full.
Outardes-4 is a hydroelectric power station and dam on the Outardes River 70 km (43.5 mi) northwest of Baie-Comeau, Quebec, Canada. The power station was commissioned in 1969 and is supplied by the Outardes-4 Reservoir which is created by seven additional dams.
The Churchill Falls Generating Station is a hydroelectric underground power station in Labrador. At 5,428 MW, it is the sixteenth largest in the world, and the second-largest in Canada, after the Robert-Bourassa generating station in northwestern Quebec.
Harriman Dam is a hydroelectric dam in Windham County, Vermont in the town of Whitingham. The water from the dam flows through a penstock to a power generation plant in the adjacent town of Readsboro.
Kyiv Hydroelectric Station is a run-of-river power plant on the Dnieper River in Vyshhorod, Ukraine. The 288 m (945 ft) long dam creates the Kyiv Reservoir with the purpose of hydroelectric power generation and navigability with the dam's associated lock. The first of 20 generators in the power station was commissioned in 1964, and the last in 1968. Together with the Kyiv Pumped Storage Power Station, it creates a hydroelectricity generating complex. It is operated by the Ukrhydroenergo. Turbines for the plant were produced by the Kharkiv Factory Turboatom, and generators by the Kharkiv Factory "Elektrovazhmash".
The Electron Hydroelectric Project, originally known as the Puyallup Project, is a hydroelectric power plant operated by Electron Hydro LLC on the Puyallup River in Pierce County, Washington. It generates 22 megawatts (30,000 hp) of electricity and is operated and maintained by approximately 20 full-time employees.
Northfield Mountain is a pumped-storage hydroelectric plant and reservoir located on and under the similarly named Northfield Mountain in Erving and Northfield, Massachusetts. It is currently owned by FirstLight Power Resources, which purchased the facility from Northeast Utilities in 2006.
Moore Dam is a major hydroelectric dam on the Upper Connecticut River between Grafton County, New Hampshire and Caledonia County, Vermont in the northeastern United States. The dam is located near Littleton, New Hampshire, and forms the 3,490-acre (1,410 ha) Moore Reservoir. The Moore Station is the largest conventional hydroelectric plant in New England, in terms of installed capacity and average power generation. The dam and reservoir also provide flood control, recreational boating and fishing.
