| Hook Canyon is a small canyon on the east side of Bear Lake in Utah’s Rich County. A company called Symbiotics LLC is propsing a hydroelectric pump project for the area. The pumped storage project would pump water from Bear Lake into a newly constructed reservoir on the eastern bench above the Lake in Hook Canyon. Water would be exchanged between Bear Lake and the new reservior using an underground shaft connected to an underwater intake and tailrace structure in Bear Lake. A power plant houseing 14 reversible pump-turbines will be constructed underground near the base of the shaft.(Click to view a diagram of the structure.) This pumping and back flow will exchange of up to 15,400 ac-ft of water, (or 5 billion gallons, that’s a million gallons, five thousand times!) This water exchange will cause the elevation of Bear Lake to fluctuate about 3 inches daily.
This project is NOT renewable energy. It will use more power than it generates. It will be a net loss to the power grid. It will consume 4,057 GWh of electricity to generate 3,245 GWh annually. The only reason it is economically feasible is that water is pumped up at night when demand for electricity is low, and then run down to generate electricity during the day when demand is higher. This is power arbitrage, not power generation. Since coal burns just as well at night, the power company can generate electricity day or night at the same cost. But they can’t sell the power at night because you only have your refrigerator and alarm clock running. But a coal fired power plant is enormous, and can’t just start up and shut down to meet this fluctuating power demand. Pumped power projects are a way of storing the energy that can be generated at night for use during peak day hours. They should not be confused with true renewable energy sources like hydroelectric, wind and solar power. More... |
Some quick facts about the Hook Canyon Pump Storage Project (from the PAD and SD1 FERC P-12707) printable PDF The project will generate 3,245,872 MWh annually and has a generating capacity of 1,120 MW. It will consume an estimated 4,057,340 MWh to (pump the water up) for a net energy loss of 811,468 MWh annually. Upper Reservoir Emergency spillway will be excavated to the south to flow down South Eden Canyon Access to reservoir and emergency spillway is via South Eden road and a new 3.5 mi. long road Powerhouse Operation Construction Transmission Lines
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| Documents you can dowload if you want all the details | |
| Reference Document | Comments |
| Pre-Application Document (PAD) entire document |
This is a whopping 7MB .pdf document. It is big, but a must read if you want to know all the details (and be knowledgeable). |
| Pre-Application Document (PAD) (no appendices) |
Almost as big but without engineer drawings, lists of potentially affected plants and all the correspondence that has occured |
| Scoping Document 1 (SD1) | The initiation of the process to insure all pertinent issues are identified and analyzed and that the proposed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is thorough and balanced. |
| FERC information (Federal Energy Reglatory Commission) | How to get information from FERC and file your comments with FERC |
| Symbiotics, LLC | the Applicants website |
Links for Citizens to Monitor and Comment in the FERC process QUICK SUBMIT (No FERC registration necessary) Official Information about Hook Canyon Project on the FERC website
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Submit Your Comments Electronically
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