Pine Flat
Pine Flat is a 165 MW conventional hydroelectric power plant at the base of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Pine Flat Dam on the Kings River in Fresno County, California, near Sanger. It is owned and operated by the Kings River Conservation District (KRCD) under FERC Project No. 2741 and is formally known as the Jeff L. Taylor Pine Flat Power Plant; its three 55 MW units entered commercial operation in 1984. The plant uses irrigation and flood-control releases from Pine Flat Reservoir to generate power that offsets electricity demand for the California Department of Water Resources' State Water Project, delivering output through a dedicated transmission line to PG&E's 230-kV grid. It sells into CAISO and settles at price nodes located immediately adjacent to the plant. KRCD's 50-year FERC license runs through August 31, 2029; the district filed its notice of intent for a new license in February 2024 and must submit a full relicensing application by August 31, 2027. KRCD is also building a fourth, 4.5 MW low-flow generating unit under a 2023 FERC license amendment, which would raise the project's licensed capacity to 171.3 MW once completed.