Paradigm Shift Hydro Eyes Massive WA Water Power Plant
Published Date: 8/5/2025
Notice
Summary
Paradigm Shift Hydro, LLC wants to build the Three Sisters Energy Project, a new pumped storage hydropower plant near Buckley, Washington. This project could help store and supply clean energy but needs public feedback by September 2, 2025. If approved, it might change how local energy is managed and could impact future energy costs and jobs in the area.
Analyzed Economic Effects
3 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 2 mixed.
Project infrastructure and water use described
The filing describes a closed-loop pumped storage project near Buckley, Washington, including an upper reservoir of 25 acres (1,780 acre-feet at 3,600 ft elevation), a lower reservoir of 20 acres (1,970 acre-feet at 1,500 ft elevation), two 4-mile-long 10-foot-diameter steel penstocks, a reinforced concrete/steel powerhouse, three turbines each ~88.3 MW, a 1.75-mile overhead transmission line to the Bonneville Power Administration system, and proposed groundwater supply wells tapping confined aquifers for initial fill and make-up water.
Project may change local energy and jobs
The notice says the Three Sisters Energy Project could help store and supply clean energy and notes that, if approved, it might change how local energy is managed and could impact future energy costs and jobs in the area. Interested parties in Washington may consider those potential changes when deciding whether to file comments or intervene before September 2, 2025.
Public comment deadline: Sept 2, 2025
You can file comments, protests, or motions to intervene in the FERC proceeding for the Three Sisters Energy Project; the deadline to submit those filings is September 2, 2025. The Commission accepts electronic filings via eFiling or eComment (up to 6,000 characters without registration) and also accepts paper filings to the addresses listed in the notice.
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