The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has nine hydroelectric plants on the Cumberland River System in Kentucky and Tennessee. Design life for this type of equipment is 30 to 50 years, but these units began operating as early as 1948, with the newest of the units on line in 1977. Evaluations conducted by the Corps from 2007 to 2011 indicated that the condition of the turbines ranges from "fair" in the older plants to "good" in the newer plants. However, many of the older generators are in "extremely poor" to even "critical" condition.
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