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Chilhowee
The Chilhowee Development is located in Blount and Monroe Counties, Tennessee, on the Little Tennessee River between river miles 33 and 34. Construction on the Chilhowee Development began in 1955 and the development became operational in 1957. The Chilhowee Development consists of a dam and integral powerhouse. Chilhowee Dam impounds Chilhowee Reservoir that has a normal full pool area of approximately 1,734 acres and a drainage area of 1,977 square miles. The normal full pool elevation of Chilhowee Reservoir is 874.0 feet (USGS).
The Chilhowee powerhouse is integral with the dam and is located immediately downstream of the intake between the gate controlled spillway section and the left non-overflow section. The intake is located at a centerline depth of 48 feet below the normal full pool elevation of the reservoir. The powerhouse contains three Kaplan turbine units directly connected to generators. The current licensed capacity of the three units is 48.0 MW and the total station hydraulic capacity is 14,100 cfs.
Chilhowee, like Cheoah and Calderwood, is operated in a run-of-river mode following the daily-cycle, peaking operations of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Fontana Dam located upstream. Fontana serves as the primary flow control facility for the lower Little Tennessee River and TVA assists Tapoco in determining the daily operation of the Tapoco developments to best match expected flow releases from Fontana. Chilhowee Reservoir is operated with daily pondage, a normal fluctuation range of 1 to 2 feet, a maximum drawdown of five feet from normal full pool elevation, and no seasonal drawdown.
At TVA's request, the Chilhowee Development is operated from May 1 to October 31 with a minimum daily average outflow of 1,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) into the Chilhowee tailrace. For the remainder of the year, no minimum flow is required downstream of Chilhowee. TVA's Tellico Dam is located approximately 33 miles downstream of the Chilhowee Dam.
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