HYDRO GENERATION

Pensacola Dam
Pensacola Dam was the first hydroelectric facility constructed in Oklahoma. GRDA built the dam between December 30, 1938, and March 21, 1940, when depression-era labor was abundant. It is located between the communities of Langley and Disney, spanning a mile across the Grand River Valley and holding back the 43,500 acres of water that form Grand Lake O' the Cherokees. The six units at Pensacola Dam have a combined generation capacity of approximately 120 MW. The dam has 21 floodgates on the main spillway and 21 on the east spillways.

Robert S. Kerr Dam
Sometimes referred to as the Markham Ferry Project, this is the second hydroelectric facility constructed by GRDA. Located just north of Locust Grove, Oklahoma, the dam forms Lake Hudson, a 12,000-acre, 200-mile shoreline lake, the second in a chain of three lakes along the Grand River. Constructed in 1964, Kerr Dam's powerhouse houses four, 28.5-megawatt generators that combine to produce 114 total megawatts of electricity. Kerr Dam has 17 floodgates and a total discharge potential of 599,000 cubic feet per second.

Energy Control Center
Located at the Robert S. Kerr Dam, the Energy Control Center (ECC) is home to GRDA's System Operations Center as well as the Communications and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) departments.

Salina Pumped Storage Project
The third hydroelectric project constructed by GRDA, Salina Pumped Storage Project (SPSP) is not located directly on the Grand River system. With all possible dam sites along the river already utilized in the late 1960s, GRDA built Oklahoma's first pumped-storage facility in the hills southeast of Salina, Oklahoma, along the Saline Creek arm of Lake Hudson. Though opponents argued that such an experimental facility would 'break' GRDA, construction of the first stage was completed in 1968. The second stage completed in 1971.