After a successful restart of the Hyatt Power Plant on Friday, a temporary shutdown began around 10 am today so that the water channel can be deepened for the plant to reach its full capacity.  The shutdown is expected to last approximately 1-2 days.  The reoperation of the power plant gives the Department of Water Resources (DWR) an important, additional way to release water from the reservoir.

“We will dig deeper so we can fully ramp the plant up,” said DWR Acting Director Bill Croyle.

Initial flow from the plant on Friday was 1,750 cubic feet per second (cfs) and increased to 2550 cfs.  Once fully operational, the plant can release up to 14,000 cfs, which is important for managing reservoir inflows and outflows through the spring runoff season.

DWR engineers have determined that further deepening of the channel will help the power plant reach full capacity and that it will take approximately 1-2 days, at which time the plant will be restarted.

DWR halted flows down the damaged flood control spillway last Monday so crews could remove debris at the base of the spillway.  Debris removal lowered the water level in the channel at the base of the spillway, making it possible for the plant to resume operation Friday.  Crews working night and day have removed 216,000 cubic yards of the estimated 1.7 million cubic yards of debris.

Lake Oroville is not expected to rise above 860 feet elevation while flows are halted.  That lake level would be 41 feet below the level of the emergency spillway.  The current lake level is 850 feet elevation.  Inflows are roughly 10,000 cfs.

DWR does not expect the wet weekend weather to halt additional debris removal or create a lake elevation concern.   DWR will continue to monitor the weather forecast.

Hyatt Powerplant was successfully re-operated with one turbine generator unit running at full capacity since 2 pm, March 3, 2017.  This test provided vital feedback for construction crews working on the channel excavation and the planning efforts for short and long term reservoir management.