Hydropower
Chelan County PUD owns and operates the nation's second largest nonfederal, publicly-owned hydroelectric generating system. Two of the District's hydropower stations, Rocky Reach Dam and Rock Island Dam, are part of an 11-dam system on the U.S. portion of the Columbia River, which is fed by the fourth largest drainage system in North America. Even during the driest years on record (1928 through 1932), the Columbia River's runoff was still 71 percent of normal. The District's third hydro project, Lake Chelan and Chelan River, serves a dual purpose of generating power and regulating the level of 50 mi (80 km) long Lake Chelan, the third deepest body of fresh water in North America and the deepest outside of the Great Lakes.
The District's three hydroelectric generating projects have a combined total generating capacity of over 2,000 megawatts of hydropower, advantageous because of its low-cost, nonpolluting, and renewable nature. The three produce about 9 million megawatt-hours of power each year, enough to meet the needs of a city of more than 900,000.
37 percent of the total generating capacity is used to meet the needs of its Chelan County customers, including a portion of Alcoa's power-intensive Wenatchee aluminum smelter. The remaining 63 percent of the total generating capacity is mainly sold to four principal power purchasers: Puget Sound Energy, Avista Corporation, PacifiCorp, and Portland General Electric Company transmitted throughout the Pacific Northwest over a 16,000 sq mi (41,000 km2) grid of high-voltage transmission lines for. Chelan County residents and more than 7 million electric customers in the Pacific Northwest benefit from the low-cost electricity produced by the District. District residents, however, reaped the greatest rewards: The average residential electric rate in Chelan County is about 3 cents per kilowatt hour. By comparison, the national average residential rate is 8 cents per kilowatt hour, 267% more.
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