# Hydroelectric Power

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hydroelectric-power/174166>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 9, 2003, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hydroelectric-power/174166 "2003-05-09T18:07:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hydroelectric-power/174166/1 "2003-05-09T18:07:35Z")

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I answer a help line for a State Environmental Agency. And I get questions that don’t deal with my Agency, but I still have to find an answer for the caller.

That being said, I’ve got someone that wants to know the hydroelectric generating capacity of each hydroelectric dam in my state. Does anyone know who I should contact about this? We have several different utility companies, so contacting them may take awhile.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated!

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**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hydroelectric-power/174166/2 "2003-05-09T18:12:49Z")

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You must have a state utility commission who, if they can’t answer your question, can point you to someone who can.

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**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hydroelectric-power/174166/3 "2003-05-09T18:53:22Z")

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Contact your local utility (from your location I would guess one of the Southern Company or Entergy subsidiaries) and ask. They usually make that information available.

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**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hydroelectric-power/174166/4 "2003-05-09T20:11:14Z")

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The elevators in my building have safety certificates in them. And the power source is listed as “hydroelectric”.

I never knew you needed to a dam to power an elevator.

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**Author:** ![Mithril](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mithril/32/3517_2.png) [@Mithril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mithril)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hydroelectric-power/174166/5 "2003-05-09T21:04:17Z")

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The Federal energy regulatory commission regulates all hydroelectric dams.

[http://www.ferc.gov/hydro/hydro2.htm](http://www.ferc.gov/hydro/hydro2.htm)

The Army Corps of Engineers also keeps a database of most large dams.

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**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hydroelectric-power/174166/6 "2003-05-10T01:52:09Z")

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I submit to you an adobe acrobat file from the US Government which lists the capacities of every single utility generating station, of all fuels, above 100kW I think:

[http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/ipp/ipp\_sum.html](http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/ipp/ipp_sum.html)

and here is a similar file with all non-utility plants in the US:

[http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/ipp/ipp\_sum2.html](http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/ipp/ipp_sum2.html)

These will tell you what you need to know. They are heavily cross-referenced, and list generation type. So you can go to your state, in each file, and count on down for every hydro source.

Una