June 13, 2002
Craig Sprankle
(509) 633-9503

Grand Coulee Dam Sets Generation Record

An hourly generation record for Grand Coulee Dam was set on June 10 at the Bureau of Reclamation facility on the Columbia River in north-eastern Washington.

Using high spring flows on the river, the dam’s generators produced 5,969,000 kilowatt hours of electricity between 12 Noon and 1 p.m., according to David Lyngholm, Reclamation Power Manager. This is enough electricity to supply over 3.5 million homes.

Grand Coulee is the nation’s largest hydroelectric dam, producing 20,000,000,000 kilowatt hours of power annually. It is also the keystone of the Bureau of Reclamation’s Columbia Basin Project providing irrigation water to more than 600,000 acres of agricultural land in central Washington.