America Depends on Hydroelectric Power, but Regulatory Hurdles Could Take Plants Offline

By Teresa Homsi

Inside the Sault hydro-electric plant in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, 74 turbines are spinning and generating power for thousands of homes in the region.

This narrow plant is a quarter-mile long and its red sandstone bricks harken back to the Gilded Age when the plant first opened in 1902.

“It’s been running pretty much 24/7, 365 since then,” said Roger Line, a director of generation with the Cloverland Electric Cooperative, which owns the plant today.

The newest turbines are 113 years old and run smoothly, but Line said Cloverland considered shutting the plant down.

“If you were to buy the same amount of energy today, you could probably get it cheaper elsewhere,” he said.

Ultimately, the company kept the plant open. Line said it’s not too expensive to run and still generates a reliable flow of energy. Yet this back-and-forth on whether to keep hydro online isn’t uncommon.

A 2022 survey conducted by an engineering consulting firm found that about 36% of hydro operators in the U.S. were actively thinking about decommissioning their facilities.

Operators also noted they were “very concerned” about low energy prices, dam and public safety requirements that raise costs and the long, expensive process of renewing operating licenses.

Federal licensing

Unlike wind or solar projects, hydro facilities require a federal license that must be renewed every 30-50 years. Because water is a shared resource, plants often have to deal with dozens of federal, state, tribal and local authorities.

It can be a bureaucratic nightmare, according to Malcolm Woolf, the president of the National Hydropower Association. He said it takes eight years on average for a facility to relicense, and the process can sometimes drag on for more than a decade.