![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.003.jpg)
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.004.jpg)
The Rocky River Pumped Storage Project is located near the small town of New Milford, in western Connecticut, on the Housatonic River.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.005.jpg)
Rocky River was the first major pumped storage hydroelectric project in the USA.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.006.jpg)
The powerhouse contains a pair of turbines that generate a modest 31 megawatts of electricity.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.007.jpg)
As with other pumped storage facilities, these turbines can be reversed, becoming pumps that lift water back up to the reservoir, from the river behind the plant.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.008.jpg)
The plant, the first facility in the nation with this capability, opened in 1929, built by the Connecticut Light and Power Company. It is now operated by FirstLight, a regional renewable energy company.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.009.jpg)
The pipe feeding the plant can be seen across the road.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.010.jpg)
This 1,000-foot-long, 15-foot-wide penstock pipe connects the plant to the reservoir, and is topped by a standpipe that allows water to escape during a surge in pressure.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.011.jpg)
The reservoir, located 200 feet higher than the river, is called Candlewood Lake.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.012.jpg)
Candlewood Lake was built between 1926 and 1928, and is the largest lake in Connecticut.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.013.jpg)
Dams were constructed and 4,500 acres of trees were cleared to create the basin, which covers eight square miles.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.014.jpg)
To create the lake, hundreds of people were relocated, including 35 families in the small town of Jerusalem.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.015.jpg)
The Rocky River Station began pumping water into the basin in February 1928.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.016.jpg)
Though more than a hundred buildings were demolished, much remains beneath the waters, including roads and vehicles, visited by scuba divers today.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.017.jpg)
The lake is a popular recreation site, and is lined with private property and homes.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.018.jpg)
At a park on the shore, a map kiosk features a few images and paragraphs with historic information.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.019.jpg)
Otherwise there is little on site to explain what the lake is, or how it got there.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.020.jpg)
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.021.jpg)
FirstLight operates another pumped storage project at Northfield Mountain, 120 miles away in western Massachusetts.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.022.jpg)
The 320-acre upper reservoir is off limits, atop the mountain, and the pipelines and power plant are underground.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.023.jpg)
The water is pumped in and out of the Connecticut River at an unmarked intake/outfall.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.024.jpg)
As is required by the utility’s federal operating permit, visitation to parts of the Northfield Mountain grounds is encouraged, along walking trails in the summer, and cross-country ski trails in the winter.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.025.jpg)
Hikers and skiers are invited to stop in at the visitor center near the entrance, though most of the displays have been closed since the Covid pandemic.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.026.jpg)
The few visitable displays are about the natural history and recreational activities available there.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.027.jpg)
One small sheet describes the facility, which, after four years of construction, opened in 1972 as one of the largest pumped storage plants in the world. Today, there are only a dozen or so pumped storage plants of its size in the USA.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.028.jpg)
Filling the reservoir takes 11 hours, and draining it takes eight hours, using all four turbine/pumps in the power station. This generates 1,168 megawatts of power on the way down, but consumes around 30% more than that on the way up.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.029.jpg)
Access to the underground power station is through a portal at the base of the mountain, off limits to the public.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.030.jpg)
Like many other pumped storage plants, Northfield Mountain was constructed to balance the power grid for a nearby nuclear power plant, in this case Vermont Yankee, a few miles up the Connecticut River.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.031.jpg)
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.032.jpg)
25 miles further west into the Berkshire Mountains is Bear Swamp, the third of three pumped storage projects in New England.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.033.jpg)
The upper storage reservoir at Bear Swamp was constructed on a hill several hundred feet above the Deerfield River, which serves as the lower reservoir.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.034.jpg)
The Yankee Rowe nuclear power plant was located next to a dam three miles upstream.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.035.jpg)
It was torn down after three decades of operation, and all that remains are its radioactive spent fuel assemblies, stored in upright dry casks, indefinitely.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.036.jpg)
The Deerfield River is what is called a hard working river. Though only 70 miles long, it drops more than 1,000 feet through the hilly northern Berkshires, and has ten dams along its course, each producing electricity.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.037.jpg)
It is also a hard playing river, with busy recreational rafting and kayaking taking advantage of the controlled releases from its dams.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.038.jpg)
Much of the rafting starts below the Fife Dam, behind which is the lower reservoir for the Bear Swamp Project.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.039.jpg)
Atop the dam is the service road that leads to the Jack Cockwell Station, the powerhouse for the project, which is located underground, below the upper reservoir, on Rowe Mountain.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.040.jpg)
The edge of the upper reservoir is visible above the trees from the other side of the river, near the visitor center parking lot.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.041.jpg)
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.042.jpg)
An interpretive kiosk at the visitor center briefly describes the project, and talks about local flora, fauna, and recreational opportunities.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.043.jpg)
Construction started in 1968, and was completed in 1974. The plant has two turbine/pumps that together generate 600 megawatts, enough to power around 60,000 homes, at least for the few hours that it takes to drain the reservoir.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.044.jpg)
The project is owned by two companies: Brookfield Asset Management, an Australian investment and infrastructure company that operates thousands of sites all over the world; and Emera, a utility company based in Nova Scotia.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.045.jpg)
A path leads from the parking lot to the visitor center.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.046.jpg)
Like the power plant across the river, the visitor center is underground.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.047.jpg)
It has been closed for the past few years, due to the Covid pandemic, and, like others in the industry, it may or may not reopen.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.048.jpg)
In the meantime, peering through the glass doors, visitors at Bear Swamp can make out a carved wooden bear holding a fish, and a curved hallway leading beyond, into the unvisitable visitor center.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.049.jpg)
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-03/New_England_New_York.050.jpg)
75 miles west of the Berkshires, and past the Hudson River Valley, lies Schoharie Creek, and the Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Project, in New York State.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.051.jpg)
The project has an upper storage reservoir on Brown Mountain, and uses a dammed portion of Schoharie Creek as a lower reservoir.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.052.jpg)
A power plant on the riverbank at the base of the mountain contains the pump/turbines that both lift water to the upper reservoir, and produce 1,100 megawatts of electricity when water flows back down through them.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.053.jpg)
The operation is visible and explained at a number of locations in the area.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.054.jpg)
Mine Kill State Park is on the shore across from the project, and was established in the early 1970s to provide public recreational space, as required for the project’s construction and operating permit.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.055.jpg)
The park provides picnic and hiking opportunities, which are unavailable around the reservoir and power plant across the river.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.056.jpg)
There is also a boat ramp, across from the power plant.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.057.jpg)
The plant facilities are owned and operated by the New York Power Authority, which operates a visitor center nearby, inside a transformed and repurposed barn.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.058.jpg)
Inside are sophisticated interactive displays that describe the project in detail.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.059.jpg)
How the four underground penstocks provide water from the upper reservoir to the four turbines in the power plant.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.060.jpg)
And how the upper reservoir is more than a thousand feet above the lower reservoir, a height similar to the Empire State Building.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.061.jpg)
Other panels describe the operation too.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.062.jpg)
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.063.jpg)
The displays in the state visitor center differ from those in the Gilboa Museum, located nearby.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.064.jpg)
The Gilboa Museum describes local history, and the impact of floods and dams along Schoharie Creek, a river which still has disastrous floods, despite all the dams along it.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.065.jpg)
The Schoharie Reservoir, three miles upstream of the pumped storage project, is the most distant part of the far-flung water supply system for New York City.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.066.jpg)
It is connected to the city through a network of tunnels and aqueducts, starting with the 16-mile-long Shandaken Tunnel, once the largest water tunnel in the nation, which originates at an intake on the western shore of the reservoir.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.067.jpg)
The reservoir was constructed in the 1920s, and required the removal of the town of Gilboa, including its houses, people, and graves.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.068.jpg)
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.069.jpg)
At the other end of the state is the Lewiston Pumped Storage Project, comprised of a massive upper reservoir, covering three square miles, and a pump station/power plant, next to the Niagara River.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.070.jpg)
It is part of the larger Niagara Power Project, which includes the Robert Moses Generating Station, one of the largest hydroelectric plants in nation.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.071.jpg)
The Niagara Power Project, in turn, is part of the New York Power Authority’s statewide electrical production and distribution system.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.072.jpg)
The system is described in the New York Power Authority’s Power Vista, a visitor attraction that rivals those at Niagara Falls, four miles upstream.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.073.jpg)
The downstream view from the overlook at the Power Vista is of a gorge with walls like concrete waterfalls. On the left is the Adam Beck Generating Station in Canada, and on the right is the Robert Moses Generating Station in the US, each producing more than 2,000 megawatts.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.074.jpg)
Inside, the Power Vista provides two floors of static and interactive displays about the superlative electrical generation facilities in the region.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.075.jpg)
One interactive display allows visitors to operate a simulated system control station.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.076.jpg)
Graphics describe the Lewiston Pumped Storage Facility, and its relationship with the wider system.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.077.jpg)
The Lewiston Pump-Generating Plant lies between the upper reservoir and the lower reservoir, known as the forebay.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.078.jpg)
In addition to being the source for the pumped storage operation, the forebay, which holds two billion gallons of water and is nearly a mile long, also feeds the Robert Moses Power Plant.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.079.jpg)
The forebay is fed by a conduit which draws water at intakes above Niagara Falls, and runs under the city like a submerged river, for four miles.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.080.jpg)
Visitors use the simulated control station at the Power Vista to try to balance the pumping versus electrical generation at the Lewiston Pump-Generating Plant, switching between “generate” and “pump” based on electrical demand.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.081.jpg)
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.082.jpg)
Though not clearly marked, it is possible to visit the actual upper reservoir, by walking up its side, next to a soccer field.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.083.jpg)
What the reservoir lacks in elevation above the power station (less than 100 feet, far less than most pumped power facilities) it makes up for in area–1,900 acres, and in volume–20 billion gallons.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.084.jpg)
Along the western edge of its six miles of shoreline are the short penstocks at the top of the 1,000-foot-long pumped power station, which functions like a dam in the wall of the reservoir, inside of which, 12 reversible turbine/pumps are spinning one way, or the other.
![image from pumped storage exhibit](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-02/New_England_New_York.085.jpg)
Viewed from below, the power station appears static, despite the water coursing through it, pumped up at night, when electrical demand is low, then down during the day, when demand for power is high, adding 240 megawatts to the grid. A river of water passing in and out, under the flow of traffic on the road.