The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said in a May 16 notice that Hydro Development LLC has filed a preliminary permit application on a 70-MW hydro project that it is looking at developing in Alaska.
On Feb. 3, Hydro Development filed an application for a preliminary permit under the Federal Power Act proposing to study the feasibility of the Cascade Creek Hydroelectric Project, to be located on Swan Lake and Cascade Creek near Petersburg, Alaska.
The sole purpose of a preliminary permit, if issued, is to grant the permit holder priority to file a license application during the permit term. A preliminary permit does not authorize the permit holder to perform any land-disturbing activities or otherwise enter upon lands or waters owned by others without owner permission.
The proposed project would include: a tunnel and penstock system conveying flows from the lake siphon to the powerhouse; a 140-foot-long, 80-foot-wide concrete and metal powerhouse with three 23.3-MW vertical-shaft Pelton turbine units having a total installed capacity of 70 MW; and an 18.7-mile-long, 138-kV transmission line consisting of buried, submarine, and overhead segments, with interconnection to the existing Scow Bay substation.
The estimated annual generation of the Cascade Creek Project would be 200 gigawatt-hours.
