Keswick Dam

Keswick Dam
CountryUnited States
LocationShasta County, California
Coordinates40°36′43″N 122°26′45″W / 40.61194°N 122.44583°W / 40.61194; -122.44583
Construction began1941; 83 years ago (1941)
Opening date1950; 74 years ago (1950)
Owner(s)U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Dam and spillways
Type of damConcrete gravity
ImpoundsSacramento River
Height157 ft (48 m)
Length596 ft (182 m)
Dam volume214,000 cu yd (164,000 m3)
SpillwaysGated overflow
Spillway capacity250,000 cu ft/s (7,100 m3/s)
Reservoir
CreatesKeswick Reservoir
Total capacity23,800 acre⋅ft (29,400,000 m3)
Catchment area6,380 sq mi (16,500 km2)
Normal elevation601.6 ft (183.4 m)
Power Station
Turbines3
Installed capacity117 MW
Annual generation416,585,000 KWh (2001–2012)[1]

Keswick Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Sacramento River about 2 miles (3.2 km) northwest of Redding, California. Part of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Central Valley Project, the dam is 157 feet (48 m) high and impounds the Keswick Reservoir, which has a capacity of 23,800 acre⋅ft (29,400,000 m3). The dam's power plant has three turbines with a generating capacity of 117 megawatts (MW), which, in 1992, was uprated from its original 75 MW. The dam and reservoir serve as an afterbay to regulate peaking power releases from the Shasta Dam upstream.

The electrical substation at Keswick Dam distributes power from the Keswick power plant, the power plants at Trinity Dam and Lewiston Dam, the Judge Francis Carr Power plant near Whiskeytown Lake, and the Spring Creek Power plant, which is located just northwest of Keswick Dam.

  1. ^ "California Hydroelectric Statistics & Data". California Energy Commission. Archived from the original on 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2018-04-26.