FERC Part 12
Jocassee Project FERC Part 12 Safety Inspection
The fourth Five-Year Safety Inspection was required by FERC for the 610 MW Jocassee Pumped Storage Project for Duke Power. The project includes a 400-foot-high, 1,825-foot-long rockfill-earth core dam, two barrel-gate intakes, water conveyance tunnels, a gated spillway, two saddle dikes and a powerhouse with four reversible pump turbines.
Devine Tarbell & Associates’s (DTA) staff assembled a Part 12 team tailored to the project. The team reviewed previous Five-Year Safety Inspection reports, project design criteria, remediation work reports, project license drawings, stability calculations, failure analysis, PMF and spillway adequacy analysis, and geologic and seismology reports. Based on this information, DTA’s personnel developed a field inspection checklist for each major project structure, which included a listing of specific observations that should be made and significant issues raised during previous inspections. DTA’s staff regularly uses checklists to assure that field observations are well-organized and complete, and that significant issues raised during previous inspections are evaluated.
Following the field inspection, previous structural and slope stability calculations and hydrologic analyses were reviewed to assess consistency with accepted FERC procedures and methods. A summary report was prepared in accordance with FERC requirements and guidelines. Follow-up work included assistance with reassessment of spillway stability and review of a seepage grouting program conducted on the left abutment.