By CHARLIE BOOTHE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
HOT SPRINGS, VA. — If Tazewell County gets a $2 billion hydroelectric pump storage facility, it will be very much like the one in Bath County, Va.
Dominion Energy, which owns the Bath County facility, is proposing a similar pump station in Tazewell County on a smaller scale.
Spencer Adkins, who is the project manager for the proposed Tazewell County site, said the facility in Bath county is the largest in the world and has been in operation for more than 30 years. Dominion hosted a media tour of the Bathe County site Tuesday.
Adkins described the facility as a huge rechargeable battery. Pump storage works, he said by having a upper reservoir and a lower reservoir. Water is pumped from the lower reservoir to the upper reservoir and electricity is produced as the water is released through tunnels and the force of the water rotates turbines. Electricity is then ready to be used during peak demand times.
Ryan Fenak, who is the operator/supervisor in the power house control room, said the decision of when the electricity is needed is made in Richmond.
“It takes about six minutes to have the turbines running” he said.
At the Bath County facility, the upper reservoir covers about 225 acres with a depth of over 400 feet.
The lower reservoir where the power house is located, covers more than 500 acres and is over 200 feet deep.
The proposed site in Tazewell County would have a upper reservoir on top of East River Mountain and a lower reservoir below on the south side of the mountain.
However, the size of those reservoirs have not been determined and the Tazewell County facility would be smaller. Adkins said a preliminary application has been submitted to FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) and studies are now underway to see if the proposed 4,100 acre site in Tazewell County is feasible. Another possible site is in Wise County using an abandoned coal mine as a lower reservoir. But Adkins said the design of that facility is only “conceptual” and that Tazewell County is the only site that is being considered for a traditional site like Bath County.
“We should know during the first quarter of 2018 if either of these sites is suitable” Adkins said.
If the Tazewell County site becomes a reality, more than 2,000 jobs would be created during the five to seven year construction phase with about 50 permanent jobs after completion.
Over $300 million would be generated in the economy during construction with millions in tax revenue for Tazewell and six other counties and the city of Norton, all of whom are a part of a revenue sharing agreement related to the project. Adkins said once a decision is made to go forward with the project the approval process takes about three years.
The projected completion date if the Tazewell County site goes forward is 2028.
See more from the Bluefield Daily Telegraph
