Description
The Cabin Creek Project is located on Cabin Creek and South Clear Creek in Clear Creek County, Colorado, about 4 miles south of Georgetown, Colorado. The Cabin Creek Project occupies about 268acres of lands in the Arapaho National Forest managed by the U.S. Forest Service (Forest Service).
The project is operated Public Service Company of Colorado, an Xcel Energy Company.
The Cabin Creek Project is operated in a load-following mode that shapesavailable water to deliver power during peak-load hours with a total plant capability of 300 megawatts (MW) from its two turbines. The average annual generation of the Cabin Creek Project is 172,843 megawatt-hours (MWh).
The upper reservoir is created by a concrete-faced, rock-filled dam with astructural height of 210 feet, and a total length, including the spillways, of 1,458 feet. The upper reservoir dam impounds Cabin Creek, forming the upper reservoir, which has a total shoreline length of 4,140 feet, a surface area of 25 acres, and total storage of 1,577 acre-feet, at the normal maximum elevation of 11,196 feet.
The lower reservoir is created by an earthfill and rock-filled dam with a structural height of 95 feet, and a length of 1,195 feet. A 145-foot-long lower dam auxiliary spillway was constructed in the left abutment in 1990. The lower reservoir dam impounds South Clear Creek, forming the lower reservoir, which has a total shoreline length of 7,080 feet, a surface area of 52 acres, and total storage of 1,560 acre-feet, at the normal maximum elevation of 10,005 feet.
The powerhouse is located at the upstream (south) end of the lower reservoir.