Upper Power Plant

Upper Power Plant – Roaring Demand for Electricity

During the 1920s the population of Idaho Falls grew to a point where the city needed to generate more electricity. To meet the demand, the city built the Upper Plant. The original plant went online in 1929, which doubled hydroelectric output and lead to lower rates for customers during the Great Depression.

The city's early investment in hydropower started paying dividends when the Upper Plant was built. Becauase the utility was profitable, the city paid for more than half of the $275,000 construction cost of the original Upper Plant from the utility's surplus account.

The Upper Plant was rebuilt in the early 1980s after it was destroyed in the 1976 Teton Dam flood. The city upgraded the plant with a more efficient bulb turbine design. This new bulb design came out of Europe. The city also upgraded its City and Lower Plants with bulb turbine technology following the flood disaster.