Old Lower Hydropower Plant back in service
The Old Lower Hydropower Plant that closed down about five years ago has reopened. It has been restored to its normal operations and there was an official ribbon-cutting celebration held Thursday morning.
The Old Lower Plant was offline for a rebuilding project after an electrical fault disabled the whole plant. Rebuilding started in 2014 and took 13 months to complete. Old Lower will now be able to handle even more power than it used to before it went offline. The new repairs are expected to last at least another 75 years.
“It’s so important to just provide more power and this makes it cheaper for the city of Idaho Falls. Also, it’s free because it’s a hydro plant — the water that comes in is the water that comes out. We don’t have to produce anything to create electricity here. This will add 3.6 megawatts. Which is probably about 3,000 homes — so that will add quite a bit,” said Idaho Falls Power electrical engineer John Barksdale.
Idaho falls power now has five-hydro-power facilities with the lower plant being put back to work. All of these plants provide about one-third of the city’s electricity.
Idaho Falls Power is inviting the public to continue celebrating the rebooting of the lower plant to their annual open house event on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. at Idaho Falls Power, 140 S. Capital. This free, family-friendly event will include bucket truck rides, food, live music by kaleidoscope, jump houses, face painting, safety and fiber splicing demonstrations, tours of the bulb turbine at IFP’s headquarters and tours of the recently rebuilt old lower plant.
