Borel Hydroelectric Project (FERC No. 382)

The Borel Hydroelectric Project (Borel Project) was licensed in 1925 by the agency responsible for hydroelectric projects at that time — the Federal Power Commission. Today the responsible agency is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The Borel Project, located on the Kern River, covers approximately 189 acres of federal land and 23 acres of privately held land.

When it was licensed in 1925, the Borel Project was designed as a “Run of River” hydroelectric project which means the natural flow and elevation drop of a river are used to generate electricity. For Borel, water was taken from either the Kern River’s north fork or more recently, at the Lake Isabella Auxiliary Dam depending upon the water level of Lake Isabella. Water then travelled through the 11.2 mile-long Borel Canal and into the Borel Powerhouse where 11 MW of power was steadily generated. The Borel Project has five primary facilities:

• One small intake structure on the Kern River
• The Borel canal system (includes flumes, siphons and tunnels)
• One small forebay
• Four penstocks
• One powerhouse and switch yard where water then returned to the Kern River

Lake Isabella and Auxiliary Dam

In 1950, the United States Department of Defense, Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) built and now operates for flood protection the Lake Isabella Dam, Auxiliary Dam and Reservoir. Lake Isabella regularly inundates the Borel diversion and the uppermost 4.2 miles of the Borel Canal. Therefore, SCE made alterations to the Borel Canal and constructed an intake structure at the Auxiliary Dam to allow water to pass from Lake Isabella to the lower seven miles of canal leading to Borel powerhouse.

In 2006, the Corps began a dam safety modification study and determined that the dam didn’t meet earthquake safety standards.

In 2017, the Corps began seismic safety modifications to the Auxiliary Dam which resulted in the condemnation of SCE’s canal conduit through the dam. The conduit through the dam was abandoned in place by filling it with concrete and rendering the Project nonfunctional.