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Chapter 10: A Long-term Commitment to Reliability
movement of Lake Hodges’
water through the
regional distribution system, but the Water
Authority could capitalize on a rare opportunity
to generate electricity in the process. The
resulting pipeline rises 770 feet from Lake
Hodges to the Olivenhain Reservoir. Moving
water uphill requires two 28,000-horsepower
pumps that sit 10 stories underground. When
water flows downhill through the same pipeline,
however, it generates
up to 40 megawatts
of electricity, enough
for 26,000 homes.
The Water Authority
generates power
during the day when
energy prices are
highest. It pumps
water back uphill at
night when energy
costs are lower, creat-
ing revenues in
the process.
Completed in 2012, the Lake Hodges Projects
include a 1.25-mile underground pipeline, a
pump station and an electrical switchyard. The
facilities allow water stored in Lake Hodges to
be delivered to the Twin Oaks Valley Water
Treatment Plant prior to distribution to a majority
of the county. They also will give the Water
Authority the ability to store 20,000 acre-feet of
emergency water at Lake Hodges when the
entire Emergency Storage Project is finished.
The final
major component of the CIP involved
raising San Vicente Dam near Lakeside from
220 feet to 337 feet, nearly tripling the reser-
voir’s capacity to 242,000 acre-feet. The proj-
ect started as a bid to boost emergency stor-
age reserves by
52,000 acre-feet,
then was “super-
sized” to include
100,000 acre-feet
of additional
water
storage for dry
years. Work was
done in coopera-
tion with the city of
San Diego, the
Water Authority’s
largest
member
agency and owner of San Vicente Dam. The
dam reached its full height in 2012, becoming
the tallest dam raise of its type in the world and
increasing storage capacity in the county more
than any other single project in history. The
project also includes an 11-mile, 8.5-foot-
diameter pipeline capable of
moving vast
THE EMERGENCY STORAGE PROJECT
• New reservoir at
Olivenhain with 318-foot-high
dam, which is linked by pipeline to Hodges
Reservoir for a combined total capacity of 38,000
acre-feet of emergency storage
• Pipelines from Olivenhain Reservoir to the
Second San Diego Aqueduct and water transfer
pump station
• Raising San Vicente Dam by 117 feet to provide
52,100 acre-feet of emergency storage plus
100,000 acre-feet of storage available during
ti
mes of scarcity
• Pipeline from the San Vicente Reservoir to the
Second Aqueduct
• Six new pump stations
The final
major component of the CIP raised San Vicente
Dam from 220 feet to 337 feet