Big Wood Canal Co. purchases Magic Dam hydroelectric facility
The Big Wood Canal Co. has purchased the hydroelectric facility at Magic Dam and has applied to federal regulators to transfer the facility’s license.
Magic Reservoir Hydroelectric Inc., a subsidiary of the J.R. Simplot Co., had owned the hydroelectric facility, which has a maximum output of 9 megawatts.
In April, the company agreed to sell it to the Big Wood Canal Co., which has controlled distribution of waters impounded by the dam and stored in Magic Reservoir since it began delivering water for irrigation in 1910. Terms of the sale were not publicly disclosed.
On May 10, the companies filed their application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to transfer the hydroelectric facility’s license.
FERC has opened a public comment period on the proposed transfer, which closes July 6. If no one protests or intervenes, the commission should approve the license transfer, FERC staff member Patricia Gillis said Thursday.
As of Wednesday, FERC had received no comments, Gillis said.
“We have to wait until the end of the comment period,” Gillis said. “As of now, it seems like a pretty straightforward transfer.”
Big Wood Canal Co. Chairman Carl Pendleton said Simplot was obligated to return ownership of the hydroelectric facility to the canal company in 2023, but was willing to pursue the transfer earlier.
“They were willing to leave the contract a little early,” Pendleton said. “It was just a logical thing for everybody to pursue.”
Big Wood Canal Co. bought out the remaining anticipated income from Simplot’s operation of the facility, Pendleton said.
Magic Reservoir, in southern Blaine County, has a capacity to impound 191,500 acre-feet of water, and as of Wednesday it had 188,276 acre-feet stored and was making 100 percent of its deliveries this year, according to the canal company.
The reservoir’s water is primarily used for irrigation, and hydropower production is a secondary use. The reservoir is also used for flood control and recreation.
The agreement between Magic Reservoir Hydroelectric Inc. and the Big Wood Canal Co. includes transferring three water rights to the canal company.
The first water right was established in 1980 and permits diversion of 800 cubic-feet-per-second of water. A second water right was established in 1984 and permits diversion of 250 cubic-feet-per-second of water. The third water right was created in 1988 and permits diversion of 300 cubic-feet-per-second.
The three rights allow for incidental power generation when water is released from Magic Reservoir for irrigation or other authorized uses, according to the Idaho Department of Water Resources.
Magic Reservoir Hydroelectric Inc. has a contract to sell the power output to Idaho Power Co., which runs until 2024, according to documents filed with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission. Pendleton said Idaho Power will continue purchasing the power.
The dam is 129 feet high and 700 feet wide, with a 1,600-foot adjacent embankment that includes a concrete spillway to help impound water, according to the canal company.
In 1984, a Twin Falls-based company called Cook Electric proposed creating the hydroelectric project at Magic Dam, according to FERC documents.
The company built a powerhouse with three vertical shaft turbines and three generators with a flow capacity of 1,050 cubic-feet-per-second, according to FERC. The facility connected to Idaho Power’s grid through a 2.8-mile-long, 46-kilovolt transmission line.
Pendleton said the first delivery of power from the facility was made in 1986, and Cook Electric sold it to Magic Reservoir Hydroelectric Inc. in 1988.
Moving forward, Pendleton said Big Wood Canal Co. will use a third-party contractor to operate the hydropower facility. The contractor already operates smaller hydropower projects the canal company owns, he said.
“It gets us back to the business of delivering water,” Pendleton said.