
Electric Outage: 1-844-484-2300
Water Emergency: 541-685-7595
EWEB Main: 541-685-7000
To maintain the reliability customers have come to know and trust, EWEB must address an aging infrastructure bubble.
Find Out MoreFor the past year, EWEB’s electric division has been preparing for a complete reconstruction of the Currin substation. Quite simply, it’s reached the end of its useful life.
Find Out MoreIn January, our elected Board of Commissioners approved an agreement for EWEB to make an unprecedented bulk purchase of substation transformers.
Find Out MoreAt EWEB, we do what we can to help others in need. That’s been the reality for several of our electric and water crews over the past few weeks as we’ve responded to mutual aid requests for storm response and drinking water restoration, locally, and out of state.
Find Out MoreDespite an ice storm and a few windstorms in Eugene and the McKenzie Valley in the past few weeks, EWEB has so far fended off widespread weather-caused power outages – largely because of investments in year-round system maintenance and infrastructure improvements.
Find Out MoreCommissioners unanimously voted to approve a Record of Decision endorsing the General Manager's Recommendation to decommission the Leaburg Hydroelectric Project and approved Resolution 2302 directing the GM to develop a Leaburg Hydroelectric Project Decommissioning Action Plan
Find Out MoreEWEB is developing a plan to ensure that Eugene has a sufficient supply of reliable, affordable and clean electricity in the decades ahead, and is inviting the community to participate in the process.
Find Out MoreEWEB has joined 10 other Western utilities are to help ensure clean energy resources will be adequate to serve the growing demand in the region, while also managing costs and maintaining reliability for customers.
Find Out MoreFor their final meeting of 2022, on Dec. 6, the EWEB Board of Commissioners grappled with some major decisions and looked ahead to a new year.
Find Out MoreCommissioners supportive of General Manager's recommendation to remove Leaburg Dam
Find Out MoreIn the years ahead, EWEB will have to make a lot of decisions about where to get the electricity that we deliver to customers.
Find Out MoreFor EWEB, preparing for harsh winter storms is a year-round responsibility. While we can’t control the weather, we can make our electric infrastructure more resilient to withstand storms that bring snow, ice and wind to Eugene.
Find Out MoreThere’s no obvious right answer to the question of what to do about the Leaburg dam and canal. EWEB’s Board of Commissioners met this week for a work session with staff about the project.
Find Out MoreBy partnering with ShakeAlert and the Oregon Hazards Lab, EWEB gets an early warning of the effects of earthquakes on hydropower facilities.
Find Out MoreEWEB held its Poster Contest for 5th grade students in our service territory for Public Power Week, October 2-8, receiving more than 100 entries from classrooms across the area.
Find Out MoreMay 21, 2019
The Eugene Water & Electric Board has received a new 40-year operating license for our largest utility-owned generation facility - the Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Project on the upper McKenzie River.
The new license, issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, will allow us to operate the carbon-free, renewable hydroelectric facility through at least May 2059. The project generates enough electricity to power nearly 16,000 homes.
"We are thrilled to receive this new license and our team is looking forward to continuing to modernize the facilities at the project," said Patty Boyle, principal project manager for EWEB.
In anticipation of the new federal operating license, we started a major rebuild of the Carmen Powerhouse in 2017, replacing and refurbishing much of the equipment first installed in 1963 when the project opened. Last year, we replaced two giant turbine shut-off valves that measure 9 feet in diameter and weigh more than 26 tons. In April, we started a complete rebuild of the Carmen Substation, including the replacement of substation transformers weighing more than 66 tons each. In 2020 and 2021, we will replace the turbine runners (the propeller-like structures that spin with water pressure) and generators at the powerhouse.
"The issuance of this license initiates a substantial investment in the project along with many environmental and recreational improvements," Boyle said. "We'll be investing in fish passage facilities, improving spawning habitat and rebuilding three campgrounds."
Over the next several years, we will spend more than $116 million on upgrading the powerhouse and substation, rebuilding the three campgrounds (Ice Cap, Trail Bridge and Lakes End) in addition to other recreational, environmental and habitat improvements.
Carmen-Smith is a carbon-free generation resource known as a "peaking plant" that allows us to ramp up and down to meet customers' peak energy needs. It is one of three EWEB-owned generating facilities on the McKenzie River that supplies reliable electricity for our customer-owners.
Carmen-Smith is a network of three dams and reservoirs and two power-generating units located 71 miles east of Eugene. The Carmen Diversion Reservoir, filled by the McKenzie River flowing from its headwaters at Clear Lake, has minimal storage capacity and is used to divert water into an 11,300-foot-long tunnel leading to Smith Reservoir. From Smith Reservoir, water is routed through a second, 7,325-foot-long tunnel to the Carmen Power Plant, which discharges into Trail Bridge Reservoir, and then flows through the Trail Bridge power plant and back into the McKenzie River below Trail Bridge Dam.
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Mailing Address: 4200 Roosevelt Blvd., Eugene, OR 97402
Phone: 541-685-7000
Toll free: 800-841-5871
Email: eweb.answers@eweb.org
Customer service phone hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday - Friday