The Raccoon Mountain project is TVA’s largest hydro facility. Water is pumped to this mountaintop reservoir and then released to generate electricity when added power is needed by the TVA system.
Raccoon Mountain Pumped Storage Plant is located in southeast Tennessee on a site that overlooks the Tennessee River near Chattanooga.
The plant works like a large storage battery. During periods of low demand, water is pumped from Nickajack Reservoir at the base of the mountain to the reservoir built at the top. It takes 28 hours to fill the upper reservoir. When demand is high, water is released via a tunnel drilled through the center of the mountain to drive generators in the mountain’s underground power plant.
The area around Raccoon Mountain is a state-designated Wildlife Observation Area. The mountaintop is home to whitetail deer, woodchucks, gray foxes, and, of course, raccoons. The most compelling wildlife attraction of the area is a large wintering population of bald eagles, which can be sighted from the overlook as they hunt in the woods and waters.
Construction at Raccoon Mountain began in 1970 and was completed in 1978.
The reservoir constructed at the top of the mountain has 528 acres of water surface.
The dam at Raccoon Mountain’s upper reservoir is 230 feet high and 8,500 feet long. It’s the largest rockfill dam ever built by TVA.
Once the upper reservoir is full, the pumped-storage plant can provide 22 hours of continuous power generation.
The generating capacity of Raccoon Mountain is about 1,600 megawatts of electricity.
The Raccoon Mountain Visitor Center is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except major holidays. Tours of the power plant itself are no longer available, but the center has photographs and models to give visitors the same sort of experience.
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