Yards Creek

Yards Creek is a 450-megawatt pumped storage operation in the Appalachian Mountains in northwestern New Jersey, which went online in 1965. It has an upper and lower reservoir separated by 3,600 horizontal feet, and 700 feet in elevation. An 18-foot diameter pipe carrying the water up and down slope emerges from underground halfway down the hillside, and splits into three penstocks that connect to three pump/turbines in the plant. Water is pumped up for storage at night, and flows down during the day to produce electricity for the grid.



image from pumped storage exhibit

The facility is owned by PSEG, an electric and gas utility company based in New Jersey, and FirstEnergy, a regional energy transmission company.
CLUI photo


image from pumped storage exhibit

An 18-foot diameter pipe carrying the water up and downslope emerges from underground halfway down the hillside, and splits into three penstocks that connect to three pump/turbines in the plant, which is located on the lower reservoir.
Google Earth image