History

The Green Springs Powerplant was placed in service in 1960 and has helped meet expanding power demands in southern Oregon and northern California. Revenues have contributed significantly to the repayment of construction costs of the Talent Division. The generator was rewound and the switchyard rehabilitated in 1993. An upgrade to the generator’s excitation system was completed in late 2018.

Project Authorization

Congress authorized the Talent Division of the Rogue River Project in Public Law 606, 83d Congress, 2d Session, approved August 20, 1954, (68 Stat. 752).

Plan

Green Springs Powerplant was constructed to take advantage of the head drop of the transbasin diversion to produce power for commercial sales to assist repayment of the division costs.

The Green Springs tunnel and power conduit are 6,650 feet long and connect to the penstock, which is 60 inches in diameter and 9,000 feet long. The Green Springs Powerplant is an outdoor-type plant with a capacity of 16,000 kilowatts and a discharge of 133 cubic feet per second operating under a head of 1,800 feet. The powerplant is generally manned on a two-shift basis.

Project Purpose

The Talent Division of the Rogue River Basin Project provided for construction, rehabilitation, and improvement of the irrigation facilities of three privately owned irrigation districts in the vicinity of Medford, Oregon, and the provision for supplemental water for these lands. A collection canal system and five small reservoirs are used to divert the project water supply through a transbasin tunnel into a tributary of the Rogue River.

Present Activities
Normal operations

Future Planned Activities
None

General