The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said in a Dec. 11 notice that it has gotten an original major license application from Twin Lakes Canal Co. for the 10-MW Bear River Narrows Hydroelectric Project.
The proposed project would be located on the Bear River near the city of Preston, in Franklin County, Idaho. Proposed project facilities include: a new 109-foot-high roller compacted concrete dam and spillway creating a reservoir with a gross storage capacity of 12,467 acre-foot; a powerhouse containing two, 5-MW vertical Francis turbines with a combined maximum hydraulic capacity of 1,400 cubic feet per second (cfs); and a 0.74-mile, 46-kV transmission line connecting a proposed substation near the base of the powerhouse to an existing, PacifiCorp-owned transmission line.
Except for irrigation withdrawals during dry years, Twin Lakes proposes to operate the project in a run-of-river mode, with daily releases from the new reservoir matching releases from the upstream Oneida Project. Twin Lakes estimates that the average annual generation would be about 48,531 megawatt-hours.
The tentative schedule from here includes a March 2014 notice of acceptance, a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) issued in November 2014 and the final EIS to be issued in June 2015.
The developer contact is: Nick Josten, Geosense, 2742 Saint Charles Avenue, Idaho Falls, ID 83404, (208) 528-6152.
