Kerckhoff Dam is a concrete

arch dam An arch dam is a concrete dam that is curved upstream in plan. The arch dam is designed so that the force of the water against it, known as hydrostatic pressure, presses against the arch, causing the arch to straighten slightly and strengtheni ...

on the

San Joaquin River The San Joaquin River ( ; ) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francis ...

Fresno County Fresno County (), officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populo ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, about southwest of Big Creek. The tall dam is a

run-of-the-river Run-of-river hydroelectricity (ROR) or run-of-the-river hydroelectricity is a type of hydroelectric generation plant whereby little or no water storage is provided. Run-of-the-river power plants may have no water storage at all or a limited amou ...

facility impounding of water and is the primary feature of

Pacific Gas and Electric The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered at Kaiser Center, in Oakland, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 million households in the norther ...

's Kerckhoff hydroelectric project. The dam and its reservoir provide water for the Kerckhoff Powerhouses No. 1 and No. 2. Powerhouse No. 1 has three

Francis turbine The Francis turbine is a type of water turbine. It is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts. Francis turbines are the most common water turbine in use today, and can achieve over 95% efficiency. The pro ...

s producing a maximum of 38

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s (MW) and Powerhouse No. 2 has a single Francis turbine rated at 155 MW for a total project capacity of 193 MW. An annual 579.1 million

KWh A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a common b ...

of electricity are generated here. Completed in 1920, the dam and Powerhouse No. 1 were the first to utilize the San Joaquin River for hydroelectricity. The second powerhouse was added in 1983. The dam, named for William Georg
Kerckhoff
was part of the "

Big Creek Hydroelectric Project The Big Creek Hydroelectric Project is an extensive Hydroelectricity, hydroelectric power scheme on the upper San Joaquin River system, in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada of central California. The project is owned and operated by Southe ...

", the largest construction project in the world in 1910.

References

{{San Joaquin River dams Dams completed in 1920 Dams on the San Joaquin River Dams in California Arch dams Pacific Gas and Electric Company dams Hydroelectric power plants in California

See also

References