The Edward Hyatt Power Plant, at the Oroville Dam, is one of two reversible hydroelectric facilities at the Oroville-Thermalito Complex that can pump water as well as produce electricity. The Oroville-Thermalito Complex is a 12-mile-wide engineered waterworks which extends from the Oroville Dam in the east to the Thermalito Afterbay, in the west. It starts at the 770 foot tall Oroville Dam, the tallest in the nation, which opened in 1968. Though the primary function for the Oroville Dam and reservoir is to supply water and control flooding, it also generates electricity. The Edward Hyatt Power Plant, inside a 400-foot-long underground chamber carved inside the rock on the south side of the dam, produces up to 819 megawatts of power. Three of the six generating units have the ability to reverse, pumping water more than 600 feet from the base of the dam, back into Lake Oroville.
