Warm Springs Power & Water Enterprises (WSPWE) is located at the Pelton Reregulating Dam about five miles South of Warm Springs in Central Oregon on the Deschutes River, along the easterly edge of the Warm Springs Reservation.

In 1955, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs (CTWS or Tribes) entered into an agreement with Portland General Electric (PGE) company to allow the company to build own and operate the Pelton Project which included the Reregulating Dam.  In 1964, PGE again was granted permission to build another hydroelectric plant, known as Round Butte Powerhouse, which is seven miles further upstream. In the 1955 agreement, the Tribes retained the exclusive right to install, operate, and maintain a hydroelectric generating unit or units in the Reregulating dam at their own expense.  The design, construction and operation was subject to approval of the power company, who is responsible for maintaining the flow in the Deschutes River as prescribed in the FERC license. In 1955, it was not considered economically feasible to install a hydroelectric plant in the Reregulating dam. The Pelton Reregulating Dam was originally constructed by PGE to provide regulation storage solely to hold the varying flow from the peaking operation at Pelton Dam and Round Butte Dam and to release the water at uniform rates into the Deschutes River downstream.

The license for the Pelton project was issued December 18, 1951, to PGE for a period of 50 years, effective January 1, 1952. PGE completed construction and placed the Pelton development, including the Reregulating Dam, less the powerhouse at the Reregulating Dam. In 1964, the FERC license was amended to include Round Butte

On May 30, 1979, PGE and The Confederated Tribes filed a joint application to amend the license for the Pelton-Round Butte FERC Project No. 2030.  The applicant’s proposed that the Tribe’s become a joint licensee of the project to the extent of their interest in the project works for constructing, operating, and maintaining defined project works.  The project works included a powerhouse (located at the Reregulating Dam, containing a 19.5 MW horizontal bulb-turbine and generator), additional fish facilities, and a 3-mile long 69kV transmission line to the PP&L Warm Springs substation.  The amended license was granted and issued February 20, 1980.

PGE and the Tribes executed a Memorandum of Understanding on May 25, 1979 “…to set forth the understanding and preliminary agreement of the parties concerning Tribes proposal for construction and operation of the hydroelectric generating plant, transmission and related facilities at the Reregulating Dam…” This provided that, under the agreement of December 22, 1955, as amended January 20, 1961, the Tribes would proceed with license amendment application, design and construction, it also provided that the Tribes and PGE would enter into and engineering and construction agreement and operations agreement.

There has been several resolutions passed that deal with energy, but the most current significant one was on March 21, 2006, the Tribal Council passed Resolution 10607, and amended the Warm Springs Power Enterprises Plan of Operation to include the responsibility of exploring the opportunities to market water under the water settlement agreement that was settled between US Department of Interior the state of Oregon and the Confederated of Tribes, the Resolution also changed the name to Warm Springs Power & Water Enterprises.