The Central Utah Water Conservancy District operates two hydroelectric power plants. One is located at the base of Jordanelle Dam. The other plant is located at the mouth of Provo Canyon on the historic Olmsted campus.
The Jordanelle Power Plant became operational in 2008. The plant has two Francis turbines and can generate 13 megawatts. This is enough power for 9,000 homes. Jordanelle is one of only 178 power plants to be certified as “Green” by the Low Impact Hydropower Institute and was the 29th plant to be certified. Power from this plant is sold to Heber Light and Power Company, who uses the power in the Heber Valley and sells part of it to Lehi and St. George. The Jordanelle plant is a run-of-the-river plant and only generates power on water that is released from Jordanelle Dam for downstream demands.
The Historic Olmsted Hydroelectric Plant first became operational in 1904. The plant was later upsized in 1922. The plant was named after Fay Deveraux Olmsted, who was the engineer for the plant. He died from tuberculosis while the plant was being constructed. Historically, much of the power from the plant was used for the mining industry. The plant has undergone many modifications over the years and was finally retired in 2015. The new Olmsted Hydroelectric Plant became operational in 2018. Its main purpose is to protect water rights that are used for over half of the Jordanelle Reservoir water supply. This water supply delivers water to over a million people. The new Olmsted plant has four Francis-type turbines and can generate 11 megawatts of power. The amount of water used to generate power can be as low as 7 cubic feet per second (cfs) and as high as 429 cfs.