ROANOKE, Va., August 19, 2009 – Recreational and commercial users on the Staunton River below Leesville Dam are urged to be aware of water levels and flow August 27 and 28.Appalachian Power will increase its normal release of water from the Smith Mountain Project’s lower dam into the river as part of regulatory compliance requirements.
 
The company will be performing tests on two power generating units and related equipment which require them to be brought to full load for periods of about one hour each.
 
Currently water is released from Leesville Dam at a rate of about 700 cubic feet per second (cfs). During the tests the rate will be about 4,500cfs.
 
The modified releases will occur between 9:00 a.m. and noon on both days. Effects of the increase will be seen downstream after that time.
 
The increased releases are not expected to create dangerous conditions, but river users should be aware that changes in water flow characteristics could occur unexpectedly in the afternoon on those dates. Effects will diminish as distance from the dam increases.
 
Flow modifications are contingent upon restrictions or requirements that may be caused by extreme weather or other demands. Changes may be made to the flow release schedule without notice.
 
Up-to-date information on water levels and flow at Smith Mountain Lake and Leesville Lake is available on Appalachian Power’s on-line site:
http://www.aep.com/environmental/renewables/hydro/default.asp
 
Smith Mountain Project is a 636-megawatt pumped storage hydroelectric facility that utilizes an upper reservoir (Smith Mountain Lake) and a lower reservoir (Leesville Lake.)  Water stored in Smith Mountain Lake first passes through turbine-generators in the powerhouse to produce electricity and is discharged into Leesville Lake.  Most of the water is retained in Leesville Lake and pumped back into the Smith Mountain Lake for re-use.  A portion of the water goes through the turbine-generators at the Leesville powerhouse to generate additional electricity and to meet the minimum discharge requirements of the project´s operating license. 
 
Appalachian Power provides electricity to 1 million customers in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee (as AEP Appalachian Power). It is a unit of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, with more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. 
 
 
                                                       # # #