Mount Elbert Pumped Storage Plant, Colorado

The Mount Elbert Pumped Storage project is named after Mount Elbert, the tallest mountain in Colorado, which looms above the plant. It consists of a constructed upper reservoir and a powerhouse located on the lower reservoir, two connected lakes, aptly called Twin Lakes. The upper reservoir, known as the Mount Elbert Forebay, is 275 acres in size, and fluctuates as much as 31 feet between being drawn down and filled up. The Mount Elbert Forebay also holds water from the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, a large-scale water capture and storage project, under construction from 1964 to 1981 by the Bureau of Reclamation, that uses a network of tunnels and reservoirs to bring water from one side of the Continental Divide to the other. Water leaves the reservoir at two intakes on the southern side, traveling through two underground penstocks 15 feet in diameter, 3,000 feet down to the power plant. The power plant was built in 1974, but the two pump/turbine units came later, going online in 1981 and 1984. Each produces 100 megawatts.