Yards Creek Generating Station
Yards Creek Generating Station is pumped-storage hydroelectric plant in Blairstown and Hardwick Township in Warren County, New Jersey. The facility is jointly owned by subsidiaries of Public Service Enterprise Group[1] and FirstEnergy.[2] It has an installed capacity of 420 MW.
| Yards Creek Generating Station | |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Location | Blairstown, New Jersey |
| Coordinates | 41°0′2.96″N 75°1′53.60″W |
| Status | Operational |
| Owner(s) | PSEG FirstEnergy |
| Upper reservoir | |
| Creates | Upper Yards Creek Reservoir |
| Total capacity | 5,013 acre⋅ft (6,183,000 m3) |
| Lower reservoir | |
| Creates | Lower Yards Creek Reservoir |
| Total capacity | 5,452 acre⋅ft (6,725,000 m3) |
| Power Station | |
| Pump-generators | 3 x 140 MW reversible Francis-type |
| Installed capacity | 420 MW |
| Annual generation | 753.7 GWh |
Location
The facility is located in the Delaware Water Gap region of the New Jersey Skylands. When built the complex stretched into the former township of Pahaquarry. Pahaquarry got its name from the word Pahaquarra, which was a derivation of the Native American word Pahaqualong, which meant "the place between the mountains beside the waters". The township dissolved in 1997, becoming part of Hardwick Township[3]
Operations
Commercial operation began in 1965 and the power station was upgraded in the 1990s. Yards Creek consists of two reservoirs created by earth-fill embankment dams. The upper and lower reservoirs are separated by an elevation of 700 ft (210 m).[4] Water is conveyed between the plant and the Upper Reservoir via an 18’ diameter 1,800’ long exposed steel pipe. At full station load, approximately 4 million gpm of water is released (9000 cfs) 5,800 MGD, Velocity: 35 ft/sec, or 24 mph. The full upper reservoir will last 5.7 hours at Hydraulic Turbine nameplate capacity. The storage facility provides energy regulation and spinning reserve during on-peak hours, and it provides an energy sink off-peak (11P.M. -7 A.M.) to allow fossil and nuclear plants to remain more fully loaded.[5][6]
References
- "Yards Creek Generating Station". PSEG. Retrieved 2014-12-31.
- "FirstEnergy Completes Sale of Eleven Hydroelectric Power Stations to LS Power's Harbor Hydro Holdings, LLC". LS Power. 12 February 2014. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
- Bewley, Joel. "Lost to merger, a town vanished Tiny Pahaquarry Township gave up in 1997.", The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 23, 2006. access date 2014-12-31 "Pahaquarry, a Lenni-Lenape word that means 'the place between the mountains beside the waters,' rested between the Delaware River and the Kittatinny Ridge.... It lost steam and funding and was finally deauthorized by Congress in 1992."
- "Jersey Central Power & Light Company And Pseg Fossil, Llc; Notice Of Application Tendered For Filing With The Commission And Establishing Procedural Schedule For Licensing And Deadline For Submission Of Final Amendments". Energy Department, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 10 March 2011. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
- Albert, Richard C. (2010), Damming the Delaware: The Rise and Fall of Tocks Island Dam, Penn State Press, ISBN 978-0271046631
- "Spotlight on pumped storage". Water Power & Dam Construction. 11 August 2011. Retrieved 16 February 2015.