COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - One hundred years and going strong.

That’s what Colorado Springs Utilities was celebrating Friday morning at the Ruxton Hydro Plant, located right off the Pikes Peak Cogway on Pikes Peak.

“In 1925 they built this plant,” Chris Thompson, plant system operator, said. “This plant was built in six months.”

Thompson said the Ruxton Hydro Plant was built in 1925 and was the first hydroelectric plant in the world to be fully automated. He said it was designed to be started, stopped and operated from the Manitou Hydro Plant with no intervention at the plant itself.

Thompson tells us the water going through the hydro plant is from Lake Moraine, the only natural lake on Pikes Peak. They say the water from the lake drops a total of 1,160 feet, creating 500 psi of

See Full Page