In August of 1985, he plant became operational as the C. H. Corn Hydroelectric Power Generating Plant. An electric power generator is nothing more than a huge magnet spinning inside a huge coil of wire. The most common way to drive electric generators is to connect them to a turbine powered by steam, and that's the way most power plants in Florida work. But there are other ways to turn a turbine, and one of them is with water. In a hydroelectric plant, the water that is held up behind the dam is pushing forward with a lot of force.
Water is routed through the dam in a huge pipe, spinning a turbine placed in the middle of the pipe.
The spinning turbine is connected by a drive shaft to a generator located in the dam's powerhouse directly above the turbine. The drive shaft spins the generator's big magnet inside its coil of wire, generating electricity. The energy to turn the turbine, and generator, is provided by gravity pulling the water down through the dam, so no fuel is necessary. At maximum output during high water periods, the Corn Hydro Plant is capable of providing Tallahassee with a constant 12 megawatts of electricity output, but on an average day, it's about 3 megawatts. Tallahassee requires about 425 megawatts of electricity on a typical day, so the power provided by the hydro plant isn't a huge percentage of the City's requirements.