Borel Powerhouse

 production  Add category

 Upload a photo

www.borel.info/redline/05%20Historical%20and%20Archeolo... --

"Hydroelectric development began along the Kern River in 1894. In that year, the Power, Transit, and Light Company (PT&L) started construction of a small power plant at the mouth of Kern Canyon that was in operation by 1897. In 1895, the Kern River and Los Angeles Electric Power Company (KR&LAEP), organized by William G. Kerckhoff, obtained water rights on the Kern River and planned construction of a power plant designed by engineer Henry Hawgood. KR&LAEP was unable to finance the project. But beginning in 1897, the Company began to undertake just enough work on a canal to retain its water rights. In 1902, Henry E. Huntington, with partners including Kerkhoff, formed the PL&P. The PL&P, then in desperate need of electrical energy to power Huntington’s growing streetcar system in Los Angeles, purchased the KR&LAEP stock, reconstituted KR&LAEP as a subsidiary named the Kern River Company, and pushed construction as rapidly as possible. The plant, which Huntington named ‘Borel’ for associate and San Francisco financier Antoine Borel, was completed in 1904. Kern River Company was absorbed into PL&P in 1908 and ceased to exist as a separate entity. PL&P merged with Southern California Edison Company (Edison) in 1917.

"The Borel Project was built at a time when Henry Huntington’s finances were spread thin by his initial investments in southern California real estate. Consequently the plant was built on a tight budget, and many corners were cut. As a result, within a decade of completion the Project was already undergoing major repairs and reconstruction. One of the most significant changes to the Borel Project occurred in the mid-1950s when the Corps built Isabella Dam and flooded Kern Valley. The dam and lake affected the upper half of the water conveyance system. The solution the Corps negotiated with Edison was to rebuild the diversion structure, canal, and trestles within the inundation zone in concrete, replace the trestle across the Kern River main fork with a siphon, and construct the Lake Isabella Auxiliary Dam as the Borel intake (except when the lake is below the level of the canal). At that time, the Corps thought Lake Isabella would be drawn down to minimal levels each year, which has not been the case. Consequently, when the canal is exposed, such as the drought years of the late 1980s, the canal requires sediment excavation and other repairs to make it serviceable.

"Edison constructed and operates two other hydroelectric plants on the Kern River: KR-1, built between 1904 and 1907 (the KR-1 intake is located at Democrat Dam downstream from Borel powerhouse and the KR-1 powerhouse is located near the mouth of Kern Canyon), and Kern River No. 3, completed in 1921 (the Kern River No. 3 intake is located at Fairview Dam and the Kern River No. 3 powerhouse is located just upstream from ‘new’ Kernville). When Edison acquired the Borel Project in the 1917 PL&P merger, the decision was made to retain its original name. This is the origin for the odd naming convention of the Edison plants on the Kern River."

www.borel.info/
www.kvsun.com/articles/2004/06/16/news/valley_life/bobp...