Water and Power Associates Informing the Public about Critical Water and Energy Issues facing Los Angeles and California

Once the Los Angeles Aqueduct was completed in 1913, it became possible to harness the newly delivered water and use it to generate electricity.

On March 18, 1917 the San Francisquito Power Plant No. 1, Unit 1 was placed in service and energy was delivered to Los Angeles over a newly constructed 115 kV transmission line. The 200 kilowatts generated by Unit 1 were the first commercial kilowatts generated by the Los Angeles Bureau of Power and Light. Subsequently, on April 16 and April 28, 1917, Units 2 and 3 respectively were placed in operation. This was the Los Angeles Bureau of Power and Light's first step in becoming an independent electricity provider.

When opened, Power Plant No. 1 would provide over 70% of the power needs of Los Angeles. The plant is still in operation today, but only delivers a small fraction (0.5%) of LA's power needs.

Historical Background

In 1909 the Bureau of Los Angeles Aqueduct Power was created to build hydroelectric power plants along the Los Angeles Aqueduct. When Los Angeles acquired water rights in the Owens Valley section of Inyo County to construct the LA Aqueduct, it also obtained water-power sites along the way.

Ezra F. Scattergood was selected as the Bureau’s first chief electrical engineer. Scattergood led the way in the development of hydroelectric power along the route of the aqueduct and became Mulholland’s counterpart for the Power System.

Power Plants on the Aqueduct

The aqueduct system was extensively developed to take advantage of the drop in elevation as water descends from the High Sierras to Los Angeles. Up to 14 hydroelectric power plants were built along the Los Angeles Aqueduct. In 1908, the Division Creek Power Plant in Owens Valley became the first hydro-electric power plant to be constructed. It, along with the Cottonwood Power Plant, were built for the purpose of constructing the aqueduct. This was the first time electric energy had been used in such a construction project.

Historical Notes

Water flows entirely by gravity from an elevation of 3,760 ft at the Haiwee Reservoir to an elevation of 1,200 ft at the Upper Van Norman Reservoir.

(ca. 1916)* - William Mulholland and Commissioner Del Valle in an 80" pipe at Power Plant 1 construction.

(n.d.)** - The Pelton wheel used at Power Plant No. 1 as it appeared on display.

It extracted energy from the impulse of moving water, as opposed to its weight like a traditional overshot water wheel.

Historical Notes

On March 18, 1917 the San Francisquito Power Plant No. 1, Unit 1 was placed in service and energy was delivered to Los Angeles over a newly constructed 115 kV transmission line. The 200 kilowatts generated by Unit 1 were the first commercial kilowatts generated by the Los Angeles Bureau of Power and Light (Click HERE to see more in Early Power Transmission).

Subsequently on April 28 and April 16, 1917, Units 2 and 3 respectively were placed in operation.

The LA Bureau of Power and Light now had a source of low cost electricity and more than enough power to meet the City's needs.  It would sell its excess San Francisquito generated power to Pasadena over two newly constructed 34 kV lines between the two cities. By 1917, World War I had forced the price of fuel oil to rise making the new lower cost hydroelectric power extremely desirable.^

(1928)* - Power Plant No. 2 prior to the St. Francis Dam failure on March 12, 1928.

Historical Notes

This station is about 1.3 miles downstream from where the St. Francis Dam stood. The building is 60 feet tall, but was destroyed by a wall of water that was 120 feet high. This photo was taken shortly before the St. Francis Dam failed.^

Historical Notes

Power Plant No. 2 was completely destroyed by the flood that swept through the canyon after the St. Francis Dam failed on March 12, 1928. You can clearly see how the hillside in the background has been stripped of all vegetation by the water, which came over the top of the hill upstream of the powerhouse.

Historical Notes

Power Plant No. 2 was completely restored and back in service by November 1928, just 8 short months after the original plant was destroyed in the St. Francis Dam Disaster.

From the LADWP Historic Archive

Although it wasn’t the first City power plant, it’s the oldest in operation and began service even before transmission lines crossed mountains and desert to deliver its power to Los Angeles.

Located south of Olancha and north of Haiwee Reservoir, the power plant was designed by DWP power pioneer Carl A. Heinze to tap the energy of rushing Cottonwood Creek which is diverted to a flume four miles up Cottonwood Canyon in the Sierras. From the flume, water is carried to a forebay behind the plant and then sent through penstocks to the turbines under a 1,200-foot head. Only a few yards form the plant’s tailrace, the water flows directly into the Aqueduct.^

From the LADWP Historic Archive

Power from Cottonwood’s first generator and a second 900-kilowatt unit placed into service October 13, 1909, first traveled over temporary transmission lines to power the Aqueduct dredging operations and later to power equipment at the Monolith cement plant near Mojave which produced millions of tons of cement for miles of the Aqueduct’s concrete-lined conduit and canal sections.^

From the LADWP Historic Archive

In April 1908, in the shadow of the towering snow-clad High Sierra, the Division Creek Power Plant No. 1, Los Angeles’ first municipal power plant, was placed in operation.

The powerhouse was a small frame building with a tiny 120-kilowatt generator. It harnessed the flow of a small creek tumbling down from the High Sierra, producing hydroelectric power for construction work on the new Los Angeles Owens River Aqueduct which was just getting started at the time. It was the first known use of electricity for a construction project of this kind.^

Historical Notes

The Owens River Gorge is a natural canyon carved by the river as it passed through the volcanic tablelands at the northern end of the Owens Valley. This landform, a giant, sloping volcanic scab, was formed on top of the existing valley floor 760,000 years ago by the eruption of the nearby Long Valley Caldera. DWP built three hydropower plants in the gorge, to take advantage of the 2,300 foot drop between Crowley Lake and the Owens River Valley. Between the plants, river water is diverted into pipelines in order to increase the velocity of the water flow, thereby increasing power.^^

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