![Chilhowee-TN](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Chilhowee-TN.JPG)
Chilhowee Dam is a
hydroelectric dam
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...
located in
Blount and
Monroe counties,
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
, United States, between
river mile
A river mile is a measure of distance in miles along a river from its mouth. River mile numbers begin at zero and increase further upstream. The corresponding metric unit using kilometers is the river kilometer. They are analogous to vehicle road ...
33 and 34 on the
Little Tennessee River
The Little Tennessee River is a tributary of the Tennessee River that flows through the Blue Ridge Mountains from Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, into North Carolina, and then into Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. It drains portio ...
. Construction began in 1955 and was completed in 1957. The dam's reservoir covers approximately at normal full pool and has a drainage area of . The elevation of Chilhowee Reservoir is above mean sea level (USGS). Chilhowee's powerhouse is equipped with three
Kaplan turbine
The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, who combined automatically adjusted propeller blades with automatically adjusted wicket gates to ach ...
s that have a combined generating capacity of 48 megawatts.
[Alcoa]
Chilhowee
, 2010. Retrieved: 5 January 2010.
Like
Calderwood and
Cheoah, Chilhowee is controlled by
TVA
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a Federal government of the United States, federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, an ...
's
Fontana Dam
Fontana Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Little Tennessee River in Swain and Graham counties, North Carolina, United States. The dam is operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the early 1940s to satisfy the skyrocketin ...
. Fontana Dam is the primary flow control facility for the lower
Little Tennessee River
The Little Tennessee River is a tributary of the Tennessee River that flows through the Blue Ridge Mountains from Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, into North Carolina, and then into Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. It drains portio ...
.
Tapoco built and operates the Chilhowee Development.
Chilhowee Dam and its powerhouse are listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
as the Chilhowee Hydroelectric Development.
When the lake is drawn down for maintenance, the remains of the original bridge of US 129 over Abrams Creek can be seen.
References
External links
*
Brookfield Smoky Mountain Hydropower(Brookfield)
(TVA)
{{Little Tennessee River dams
Alcoa Power Generating dams
Buildings and structures in Blount County, Tennessee
Buildings and structures in Monroe County, Tennessee
Dams completed in 1957
Dams in Tennessee
Dams on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee
Energy infrastructure completed in 1957
Hydroelectric power plants in Tennessee
Dams on the Little Tennessee River
National Register of Historic Places in Monroe County, Tennessee