Rocky Mountain is located in the southern Appalachian Mountains, in the northwest corner of the state of Georgia. Construction of the project started in 1977, but stopped in the 1980s, due to financing issues. It was finally finished and opened in 1995, after a total cost of more than $1 billion. It was the last major pumped storage hydro project constructed in the USA. The project consists of an oblong upper reservoir constructed near the top of Rocky Mountain and a lower reservoir with a power plant, containing three pump/turbines, capable of producing 385 megawatts each, for a total of 1,140 megawatts, making it the seventh largest pumped storage plant in the nation.
