Federal legislation may make local hydro projects easier to pull off

Pumped storage hydropower projects that are in planning for the Coulee, as well as for Halverson Canyon north of Creston, may be aided by recent federal legislation. 

The road to bringing Columbia Basin Hydropower’s $1.4 billion Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project to fruition may have just gotten a little smoother.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was passed by Congress in November 2021. 

The act authorizes almost a billion dollars for hydropower projects over five years “committing the federal government to supporting hydropower as part of a broader policy transition to achieving greater reliance on cleaner energy,” reports Martenlaw.com, a blog by a Portland law firm that follows hydropower and the Columbia River system closely. “The Act comprehensively supports improvements to existing hydropower facilities and research into new forms of hydro sources, and gives a significant push to pumped storage hydropower.”

Pumped storage projects depend on timing, pumping up to a higher reservoir when energy prices are lower, then generating power on the way back down when demand is higher, such as when the sun isn’t shining on solar projects or when wind farms are still.

Among other things, the act would allow the Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project to avoid going through an approval process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee, and only go through the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

This will “streamline [the process] and minimize our costs,” CBH Secretary Manager Darvin Fales told The Star over the phone Dec. 21. “Without having to do studies for two federal agencies, we’ll only have to do the studies required by the Bureau of Reclamation.”

Regarding the lease-of-power process, Fales explained that FERC had authority over North Dam regarding the CBH project, while USBR has authority for the Grand Coulee Dam.

“This act says [USBR] has authority over North Dam as well,” he said. “They have authority over any projects where both of the reservoirs are managed by USBR. That took FERC out of the process, and we’ll just work with Reclamation.”

The Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project’s system would run by draining water from Banks Lake, back down to Lake Roosevelt, turning generators in the process, then later pumping the water back up to Banks Lake.

The gravity-feed system would power two 250-megawatt generating units, or 500 megawatts total, using one or two penstocks (pipes), up to 35 feet in diameter. Those would run 300 feet underground from the North Dam area on Banks Lake to Lake Roosevelt.

The project would bring an estimated 1,000-2,000 workers to the area during construction.

Fales said that a timeline he provided in March of 2021 was still accurate, with groundbreaking possible in late 2025 or early 2026, and completion in late 2027 or early 2028.

He said that CBH is “working on environmental and all other issues before we get the permitting process going,” and that they are “still in the infancy,” of the project.

Jim Day is chief executive officer for Virginia-based Daybreak Power, which is promoting a similar but larger project called the Halverson Canyon Pumped Storage Project on Lake Roosevelt north of Creston, about 38 miles upstream from the Grand Coulee Dam. 

That $4.9 billion project could generate 2,650 megawatts of electricity and be operational by 2031, with construction beginning in 2026.

On how the new legislation affects the project, Day told The Star in an email that they “are not currently receiving any money in connection with provisions of the new Infrastructure Bill, but we have contacted [the Department of Energy] to inquire about the process for applying for such funding as it becomes available. Of course, it remains to be seen, but clearly our Halverson Canyon project could potentially be a good candidate for tapping into this money specifically targeted to support new pumped storage projects.”

“We believe passage of the Infrastructure Bill is a good sign not just for Daybreak’s but for all pumped hydro projects,” he continued, saying that the bill is “indicating growing recognition of the value of large-scale pumped storage for integrating carbon-free renewables.”

He added that they “have every intention of working as closely as possible with Reclamation and the Colville and Spokane Tribes to study all of the potential impacts and to address all of their concerns as this project advances. Our goal is for this project to support Reclamation’s goals and to maximize the benefits to all local stakeholders, including the Tribes.”

The Spokesman Review reported recently that “the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and the U.S. Department of the Interior expressed concerns about potential water quality, fish and wildlife, cultural and noise impacts from the construction and operation of the facility.”