SAVANNAH, Ga. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is proud to recognize its 356 individual generating units at 75 multi-purpose power-producing projects across five USACE Divisions and 16 Districts on National Hydropower Day, Aug. 24, 2026.
For more than 140 years, the USACE Hydropower Program has been providing the nation with ready, reliable, and resilient energy. USACE is the largest owner and operator of hydroelectric power plants in the United States, generating more than 25% of the nation’s hydropower and ranking among the nation’s top 10 power producers overall.
The Savannah District Operations Division operates and maintains civil works projects throughout Georgia and South Carolina for the purpose of navigation, flood damage reduction, environmental stewardship and recreation. The Lakes and Hydropower Branches manage the three hydropower dams on the Upper Savannah River; Hartwell, Richard B. Russell and J. Strom Thurmond Lakes and Dams.
“Our three hydropower dams produce energy that supplies local utility grids and electric cooperatives that serve a mix of residential, commercial and industrial customers across several states,” said Jason O’Kane, Savannah District’s operations manager. “Russell Dam is actually the largest power plant east of the Mississippi River and has the unique ability to pump water from Thurmond back into Russell. This pump-back capability not only allows us to better manage limited water during droughts, it also allows us to pass the same water through the turbines multiple times to generate electricity when demand is highest (and more valuable) during the day and then use less expensive electricity to pump the water back uphill during the night.”
In keeping with the U.S. Army’s Civil Works Program initiative of “Building Infrastructure, Not Paperwork (BINP),” USACE is boosting America’s clean energy production by modernizing the Army’s existing hydropower facilities. By partnering with the private sector, USACE can upgrade these outdated turbines to modern, more efficient models, allowing USACE to generate significantly more renewable energy from the same amount of water. This initiative increases America’s supply of clean power and strengthens energy independence without building new dams, and at minimal cost to the taxpayer.
“On this National Hydropower Day, the Trump Administration celebrates the amazing clean energy that powers our great nation’s communities,” said Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle. “By Building Infrastructure, Not Paperwork, the U.S. Army is eliminating bureaucratic delays and making easier to leverage Public-Private Energy Partnerships that modernize our vital American hydropower infrastructure and deliver bountiful amounts of renewable energy to the grid.”
The five USACE Divisions with hydropower dams are:
These federal hydropower assets generate more than 70 billion kilowatt-hours per year of reliable energy, enough to power 10 cities the size of Seattle. All power generated is marketed and sold to non-profit municipalities and cooperatives collectively known as federal preference customers. The revenues from power sales are used to fully repay all USACE hydropower costs, including operation and maintenance and the original construction costs of the hydropower projects, and to fund modernization investments in the hydropower infrastructure.
In addition to direct federal production, USACE plays a vital role in expanding the nation's renewable energy portfolio by authorizing private hydropower development at its existing non-powered dams. By retrofitting existing locks and dams, commercial developers, local municipalities and cooperatives generate supplementary clean energy without the need to build new dams.
Currently, private industry partners operate 65 active hydropower plants at USACE sites, contributing over 2,500 megawatts of additional generating capacity to the grid. The pipeline for private development at USACE sites remains active to support future energy needs. More than 1,100 megawatts of potential capacity are currently in the permitting, planning or proposed phases across various USACE districts.
Moving forward, both USACE federal hydropower plants and the private facilities authorized at USACE infrastructure will continue to remain indispensable assets to the nation and necessary parts of the ongoing national transition to a more resilient and reliable electric grid.
For more information on the USACE Hydropower Program, please visit https://www.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Hydropower/.