Hydro Works: Nashville District powering the region’s grid

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Aug. 24, 2026) – Today isNational Hydropower Day, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District is celebrating the dedicated maintenance teams and operators who deliver ready, reliable, resilient, and clean energy to the region.

This year’s theme,“Hydro Works,”highlights how water power directly benefits local communities. During times of peak demand or extreme weather, hydropower is a vital, rapid-response resource.

USACE is the largest owner and operator of hydroelectric power plants in the United States, generating more than 25% of the nation’s hydropower and ranking among the nation’s top 10 power producers overall.

While USACE directly operates and maintains 356 individual generating units at 75 multi-purpose power-producing projects across five USACE divisions and 16 districts across the nation, the Nashville District operates and maintains 28 hydropower units at nine power plants in the Cumberland River Basin to meet the growing energy demands of 4 million customers across eight states.

Powered by human grit and innovation

Loren McDonald, Nashville District’s Hydropower Branch chief, said the district’s hydropower plants continue to operate because of the people who maintain them.

The hydropower maintenance crews have taken on major maintenance efforts in the past year including replacing gate chains, while also helping modernize how we operate and maintain our facilities. They have installed new equipment to support centralized control and furthered the development and deployment of an in-house SCADA system, while balancing contractor coordination and routine maintenance.

Modernizing American Infrastructure

In keeping with the U.S. Army’s Civil Works Program initiative of “Building Infrastructure, Not Paperwork,” USACE is boosting America’s clean energy production by modernizing the Army’s existing hydropower facilities. By partnering with the private sector, USACE can upgrade these outdated turbines to modern, more efficient models, allowing USACE to generate significantly more renewable energy from the same amount of water. This initiative increases America’s supply of clean power and strengthens energy independence without building new dams, and at minimal cost to the taxpayer.

The Section 212 Program: Powering the next century

The Nashville District’s hydropower assets in the Cumberland River basin are getting a boost from the Section212 Hydropower Rehabilitation Program. Authorized by the Water Resources Development Act of 2000, the Section212 Program, the work focuses on the disassembly, rehabilitation, and reassembly of all turbine generators, non-routine maintenance of power train equipment, at Barkley, Cheatham, J. Percy Priest, Old Hickory, Center Hill, Cordell Hull, Dale Hollow, Wolf Creek, and Laurel dams.

ChrisStoltz, Section 212Program manager for the Nashville District, said the modernization efforts are breathing new life into the Nashville District’s aging assets, ensuring they continue to provide clean energy for the next generation.

The Section 212 Program rehabilitates, replaces, and modernizes these assets, helping ensure the continued delivery of reliable, affordable electricity across the region.

The Nashville District is authorized to direct revenue from hydropower sales back into the rehabilitation, replacement, and modernization of the facilities that generate it. These investments are then repaid to the Treasury over time through incremental customer rate adjustments. It is a circular, common-sense approach to infrastructure: The power sold today builds the powerhouse of tomorrow.

The work is modernizing critical ancillary systems, such as powerhouse cranes, high-voltage transformers, and excitation systems, to lay the groundwork for the main effort: full turbine-generator rehabilitations. Project managers collaborate closely with site teams, engineers, and the Army Corps’ Hydropower Design Center, combining field knowledge with national lessons learned to reduce construction risk and extend reliable operation for decades.

He stressed that the men and women of the Nashville District are the human expertise behind these efforts. From the designers drafting the next generation of specifications to the powerhouse crews keeping the machines spinning today, this program is a testament to unwavering professional dedication.

For more information on the USACE Hydropower Program, please visit.

Doug Garmin at USACE Headquarters contributed to this story.

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