The Bath County Pumped Storage Station is a pumped storage hydroelectric power plant, which is described as the “largest battery in the world”, with a generation capacity of 3,003 MW The station is located in the northern corner of Bath County, Virginia, on the southeast side of the Eastern Continental Divide, which forms this section of the border between Virginia and West Virginia. The station consists of two reservoirs separated by about in elevation. It is the largest pumped-storage power station in the world.Construction on the power station, with an original capacity of, began in March 1977 and was completed in December 1985 at a cost of $1.6 billion, Voith-Siemens upgraded the six turbines between 2004 and 2009, increasing power generation to 500.5 MW and pumping power to for each turbine. Bath County Station is jointly owned by Dominion Generation (60%) and FirstEnergy (40%), and managed by Dominion. It stores energy for PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization in 13 states and the District of Columbia.DesignThe upper and lower reservoirs are created by earth and rock-filled embankment dams. The upper reservoir dam is high, long and has a structural volume of 18000000cuyd. The upper reservoir on Little Back Creek has a surface area of and storage capacity of 35599acre.ft. The lower reservoir dam on Back Creek is 135ft high and in length. It has a structural volume of 4000000cuyd and creates a reservoir with a surface area of and storage capacity of. Connecting the upper reservoir to the power station are three water conduits between 3100- long. The conduits each lead to a 990ft shaft which bifurcates into two penstocks (for a total of six) before reaching the turbines. Each penstock is in diameter and between 900- in length. Maximum static pressure from the top of the water delivery system to the turbines is.
