Country United States Status Operational Annual gross output 753.7 GWh | Nameplate capacity 420 MW | |
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Pump-generators 3 x 140 MW reversible Francis-type Upper reservoir Upper Yards Creek Reservoir Lower reservoir Lower Yards Creek Reservoir Upper res. capacity 5,013 acre·ft (6,183,000 m3) Lower res. capacity 5,452 acre·ft (6,725,000 m3) Similar Bath County Pumped, Palmiet Pumped Storage S, Steenbras Dam, Ingula Pumped Storage S, Delaware Water Gap | ||
Yards Creek Generating Station is pumped-storage hydroelectric plant in Blairstown and Pahaquarry in Warren County, New Jersey The facility is jointed owned by subsidiaries of Public Service Enterprise Group and LS Power, which purchased the FirstEnergy share in 2014. It has an installed capacity of 420 MW.
Contents
Location
The facility is located in the Delaware Water Gap region of the New Jersey Skylands. When built the complex stretched in Pahaquarry, which 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
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). Water is conveyed between the plant & 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). 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.