Missouri River Energy Services says it will be celebrating the dedication of the 36.4-MW Red Rock Hydroelectric Project by hosting a premiere showing on Sept. 2.
The premiere, which starts at 2 p.m. CDT, will be held via video on the company’s social media pages and will feature messages from a variety of distinguished speakers, along with photos and video of the plant throughout construction.
The powerhouse is being built at the existing Red Rock Dam on the Des Moines River in Iowa, U.S. It is a rolled earthfill embankment dam with a gravity concrete control section and is 5,200 feet long and 95 feet high. It was built in the 1960s to provide flood control.
The project is owned by the Western Minnesota Municipal Power Agency and will be operated by MRES. When RRHP becomes operational, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Hydrology Department will continue to be responsible for scheduling water releases from the dam into the river, as it has been for the past 50 years. These releases could be directed through the existing gates on the dam, through the new hydroelectric facility, or through a combination of these depending on the reservoir elevation and desired flow release.
“The Red Rock project will soon produce clean, renewable, and reliable hydropower for the 61 MRES member municipal utilities in the states of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota,” MRES said.
