History

Located inside the Columbus city limits on the former site of Clapp's Factory - one of the South's leading textile mills in the 1800's - Oliver Dam is one of the newest and most modern of Georgia Power's 19 hydroelectric generating plants. The powerhouse, located on the eastern shore of the river, contains the plant's three 18,000-kilowatt generating units and one 6,000-kilowatt generating unit. The concrete dam is 70 feet high and 2,021 feet long, impounding a reservoir - Lake Oliver - that is eight miles long. With a surface area of 2,150 acres and 40 miles of shoreline, Lake Oliver provides Georgians an ideal spot for outdoor recreation, including picnicking, boating, skiing, fishing, and swimming.

Completed in 1959, its four generators have a combined capacity of 60,000 kilowatts and can produce approximately 240 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. That is enough electricity to supply more than 22,000 average Georgia homes for a year.

Oliver Dam was the first completely automatic, remote-controlled hydroelectric generating plant in the Georgia Power system. It is managed from the Bartletts Ferry plant several miles upstream.