Since 1971, Lake Keowee’s 18,500 acres of water and 300 miles of shoreline have been a valuable source of energy and recreation in South Carolina’s Upstate. Keowee was the first lake developed as part of Duke Energy’s Keowee-Toxaway Complex. The complex includes the Oconee Nuclear Station and the Keowee, Jocassee and Bad Creek hydroelectric stations.
Full-pond elevation at Lake Keowee, which provides a dependable water supply for Greenville and Seneca, is 800 feet.
The lake impounds waters from the Keowee River and the Little River. Lake water helps to cool Duke Energy’s three nuclear reactors at the Oconee Nuclear Generating Station. In addition, the force of falling water through gravity helps generate hydroelectric power.
The name “Keowee” is Cherokee, roughly translated as “place of the mulberries.” The former Keowee River, which was inundated by Lake Keowee, had been part of the Cherokee Lower Towns region; Keowee Town was once on the bank of the Keowee River.
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