Big Bend Dam

U.S. Army Corps of EngineersBuffalo CountySPP

Big Bend Dam is a Missouri River hydroelectric plant near Fort Thompson in Buffalo County, South Dakota, impounding Lake Sharpe. It was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program, with construction from 1959 and its eight generating units brought online between 1964 and 1966. The plant remains fully operating with all eight Kaplan turbine-generator units in service, totaling 538.3 MW of nameplate capacity (about 520 MW net summer capacity), and no whole-plant or unit retirements are scheduled. Big Bend is one of six mainstem dams on the Missouri River and, alongside flood control, navigation and recreation, provides peaking hydropower for the regional grid.