Alabama Power Company has submitted a petition to voluntarily surrender the preliminary permit for the proposed 1.6 GW Chandler Mountain Pumped Storage project (P-15229).
In July 2021, Alabama Power filed an application for a preliminary permit for the Chandler Mountain project, to be located on Little Canoe Creek in St. Clair and Etowah Counties, Ala. In March 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted the application and issued a 48-month permit for the proposed project.
In April 2023, Alabama Power filed a notification of intent (NOI) to file a license application and a pre-application document (PAD) for the Project. In June 2023, FERC issued its notice of the NOI and PAD and initiated the Integrated Licensing Process for the project.
The facility was proposed to be located on Little Canoe, Gulf and Jake creeks near Steele in Etowah and St. Clair counties, Alabama. It would have involved building a new upper reservoir on Chandler Mountain and a new lower reservoir at the north toe of the mountain. Estimated average annual generation of the project would have been 3.504 million MWh.
In its filing with FERC to surrender the permit, Alabama Power said, “Based on further evaluation of the project and meaningful input from numerous stakeholders, Alabama Power has decided not to seek a license from FERC to develop the Chandler Mountain Pumped Storage Project.” Because Alabama Power is terminating the licensing process for the project, the company said it wishes to surrender its preliminary permit.
Alabama Power is based in Birmingham, Ala., and provides electricity service to 1.5 million customers. The company owns or operates 77 electric generating units with total nameplate capacity of more than 12,000 MW. Hydropower provides about 6% of its power generation, from 14 facilities. Alabama Power is a subsidiary of Southern Company.
