- Southern California Edison is currently conducting a study that will see roughly 760,000 photos taken along a stretch of the North Fork of the Kern River
- The study was requested by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as part of the ongoing re-licensing process for the KR3 Hydroelectric Project.
- The Kern River Hydroelectric Project No.3 became operational in 1921.
- You can find the study plan here.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
“We are capturing photographs of the project to specifically see how the river is used for recreational opportunities. How often and when, So we are gathering that information over a year to help update our proposal and that information is then get submitted to FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commision),” said Gabriela Ornelas, Spokesperson for Southern California Edison.
Ornelas said this study is being conducted after a request from FERC and is part of the years-long relicensing process of SoCal Edison’s Kern River No.3 Hydroelectric Project.
Cameras have been installed at 15 locations along the North Fork of the Kern River, primarily on United States Forest Service land.
These cameras take one photo every five minutes – and the plan is to have them do this until November of 2025, resulting in around 760,000 photographs being taken.
A team will review the results using a custom AI model. The idea is to determine when, and how people are using the river to recreate.
This will then inform the terms of the license Southern California Edison is currently renewing.
The license terms will dictate how the hydroelectric project will operate for the next 50 years.
“So we encourage folks to continue engaging with the process. We do want them to know that we will be engaging with them once we receive the years-worth of study that we are doing and we will engage them at that point to get more insight and submit that information to FERC.”
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