The State - News from Oct. 8, 1985

The Helms hydroelectric plant has won an award from the California Council of the American Society of Civil Engineers as the outstanding civil engineering achievement of 1985. The award was based primarily on the Sierra Nevada project’s state-of-the-art design and its contribution to the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. network since the underground plant began commercial operation June 30, 1984. Helms is PG&E;’s only pumped storage project and one of the largest of its kind in the world. Pumped storage plants produce electricity like other hydroelectric plants as water drops in elevation, and they have the ability to reverse the water flow and pump it uphill for re-use.