Hydroelectric power station

“ Even a small water-driven electric station that can be operated by a single attendant at any one time must have two attendants if it is to deliver energy during the greater part or all of every twenty-four hours. But a single attendant can care for a water-power plant of 2,000 horse-power or more capacity, so that two plants of 750 horse-power each will require double the operating force of one plant of 1,500 horse-power. ”

“ Up from the ledge that forms the bed of the stream, and into the rocky walls, the power-station, about 110 feet long, is built. The up-stream wall of this station is built after the fashion of a dam, and is reënforced by the down-stream wall, and the water flows directly through the power-station by way of the wheels. A construction of this sort is all that could well be attained in the way of economy, there being neither canal nor long penstocks, and only one wall of a power-house apart from the dam. ”

“ The pumped storage plant, an engineering innovation of growing use, is to supplement the energy produced by other plants during periods of peak demands. During such periods it generates energy through use of hydroelectric units driven by water falling from an elevated reservoir into a lower pool. [3] During off-peak periods it uses energy from other sources to pump water from the lower pool back to the headwater pool. [4] The project is capable of creating up to 350 megawatts and the energy created will be utilized in Missouri, Illinois, and possibly Iowa. ”

“ The capacity of the Butte sub-station is 7,600 horse-power.
The great electric water power system marked by the Santa Ana station at one end and the city of Los Angeles at the other, eighty-three miles distant, includes more than 160 miles of transmission lines, several hundred miles of distribution circuits, and supplies light and power in twelve cities and towns. Among the customers of this system are an electric railway, a number of irrigation plants, and a cement works. These [9] works contain motors that range from 10 to 200 horse-power each in capacity. ”

“ In a modern water-power station that contributes to electrical supply in a large city the generator capacity is 1,200 kilowatts. All of the labor connected with the operation of this station during nearly twenty-four hours per day is done by two attendants working alternate shifts. ”

“ In the rare case where the power to be developed is so great that the number of generators necessary to give security and reliability to the service leaves each generator with a capacity [106]
[107] larger than is desirable for structural reasons, the number must be increased simply to reduce the size of each generator. Such a state of facts existed at Niagara Falls, where the first station contains ten dynamos of 3,750 kilowatts each, and the second station contains eleven units of like capacity. ”

“ The answer to this conundrum is that unlike Part II of Title II of the Public Utility Act of 1935, under which the Commission regulates various aspects of the sale and transmission of energy in interstate commerce, Part I, the original Federal Water Power Act, is concerned with the utilization of water resources and particularly the power potential in water. In relation to this central concern of the Act, [29] the distinction between a hydroelectric project and a steam plant is obvious, and meaningful, although both produce energy for interstate transmission. ”

“ There are a great number of magnificent water power sites, within very easy access of the surveyed route of the railway, all of which can be easily developed to furnish almost unlimited electrical energy. Hydro-electric energy could be developed at any one of these sites within a distance of thirty miles from the road, which would make transmission to points along it, or possibly operation of it actually, by electricity. It certainly assures cheap power for any manufacturing or milling centre which may develop. All these power locations must inevitably become very valuable. ”

“ Promoting small hydroelectric power projects. Sec. 4. Promoting conduit hydropower projects. Sec. 5. FERC authority to extend preliminary permit periods. Sec. 6. Promoting hydropower development at nonpowered dams and closed loop pumped storage projects. Sec. 7. DOE study of pumped storage and potential hydropower from conduits.
Sec. 2. Findings Congress finds that—
(1) the hydropower industry currently employs approximately 300,000 workers across the United States; (2) hydropower is the largest source of clean, renewable electricity in the United States ”

“ If the discharge of a stream during each twenty-four hours is just sufficient to develop the electrical energy required in a supply system during that time, the water may be made to do all of the electrical work in one of two ways. If the water-power has enough storage capacity behind it to hold the excess of water during some hours of the day, then it is only necessary to install enough water-wheels and electric generators to carry the maximum load. ”

“ Subject to subsection (c) , the Commission may grant an exemption in whole or in part from the requirements of this part, including any license requirements contained in this part, to any facility (not including any dam or other impoundment) constructed, operated, or maintained for the generation of electric power which the Commission determines, by rule or order— (1) utilizes for such generation only the hydroelectric potential of a conduit; and (2) has an installed capacity that does not exceed 40 megawatts. ”

“ It has been found that some electric stations, working twenty-four hours daily on mixed loads of lamps and stationary motors, can deliver energy to an amount represented by the necessary maximum capacity during about 3,000 hours per year. Applying this rule to the present case, the transformers at the sub-station, if loaded to their maximum capacity of 10,000 horse-power by the heaviest demands of consumers, may be expected to deliver energy to the amount of 3,000 × 10,000 = 30,000,000 horse-power hours yearly. ”

“ It follows at once from this fact that there must be cogent reasons, apart from the matter of first cost, if the general substitution of steel towers for wooden poles on transmission lines is to be justified on economic grounds. During fifteen years the electric transmission of energy from distant water-powers to important centres of population has grown from the most humble beginnings to the delivery of hundreds of thousands of horse-power in the service of millions of people, and the lines for this work are supported, with very few exceptions, on wooden poles. ”

“ From these examples it may be seen that the prevailing type of electric water-power station, whether designed for horizontal or vertical wheels of either the pressure or impulse type, is wide enough for only a single row of generators and wheels, and has sufficient length to accommodate the required number of units. ”

“ From this canal ten short penstocks, each 12 feet in diameter, will convey water under a head of 80 feet to as many sets of turbine wheels in the station. These wheels will drive ten generators with an aggregate capacity of 24,000 kilowatts or 32,000 horse-power.
Sometimes the slope in the bed of a river is so gradual or so divided up between the number of small falls, or the volume of water is so small, that no very large power can be developed at any one point without the construction of a long canal. ”

“ Modern electric stations driven by water-power are usually but one story in height and are clear inside from floor to roof, save for cranes and roof trusses. This construction may be seen in the Niagara, Spier Falls, Cañon Ferry, Colgate, Electra, Santa Ana River and many other notable plants. In spite of this one-story style of construction, the electric stations reach fair elevations because of the necessity for head room to operate cranes in placing and removing generators. ”

“ In addition, since 1953 over 450 new navigation flood control and multiple purpose projects of the Corps of Engineers have been started, costing nearly 6 billion dollars.
Soil and water conservation has been advanced as never before. One hundred forty-one projects are now being constructed under the Watershed Protection Program.
Hydroelectric power has been impressively developed through a policy which recognizes that the job to be done requires comprehensive development by Federal, State, and local governments and private enterprise. Teamwork is essential to achieve this objective. ”

“ Where a stream is difficult to dam or to divert, water is pumped from it. This has been feasible only since about 1950, when low-cost diesel engines and sufficient hydroelectric power became available from newly constructed dams on other streams. ”

“ The water will be carried through a 10,000-foot tunnel and over a bridge to a reservoir at La Grande, from which the penstocks will carry it down the side of the canyon (p. 112) to the 40,000 horse-power generating plant built on a narrow shelf a few feet above the river. The city expects to be able to produce power for its own use, with a considerable margin for sale, at a cost at least as low as can be attained anywhere in the United States.
Hydro-electric plant at Electron, on the Puyallup River, producing 28,000 h. ”

“ China will further the comprehensive and cascade development of areas with hydropower resources, speed up the construction of large hydropower stations, develop medium- and small-sized hydropower stations based on local conditions, and construct pumped-storage power stations under appropriate circumstances. It will spread the latest technologies for the utilization of solar energy, methane and other renewable energy sources, and increase their market shares. ”

“ Where, however, there are a number of cranes all belonging to the same installation, and these are placed so as to be conveniently worked from a central power station, and where the work is rapid, heavy and continuous, as is the case at large ports, docks and railway or other warehouses, experience has shown that it is best to produce the power in a generating station and distribute it to the cranes. Down to the closing decades of the 19th century hydraulic power was practically the only system available for working cranes from a power station. ”

“ Another advantage of connecting transmission and distribution lines in a sub-station, where regulation of voltage can be had, lies in the fact that it is practically impossible to maintain an absolutely constant pressure miles from a generating plant at the end of a transmission line that is carrying a mixed and varying load. A result is that without the intervention of regulation at a sub-station it is almost impossible to give good lighting service over a long transmission line. ”

“ The necessity for water wheel governors will vary with conditions. As a general rule, it may be said that reaction turbines working under a low head with a large quantity of water do not require as much governing as the impulse wheel, working under high heads with small quantities of water. When governing is necessary at all, it is because the prime mover varies in speed from no load to full load. Planning one's plant with a liberal allowance of power—two water horsepower to one electrical horsepower is liberal—reduces the necessity of governors to a [Pg 200] minimum. ”

“ Water will be pumped from the Mississippi up to the head bays of the power intake dam at the plant to meet possible shortages in supply. The tailrace will extend for a mile along the shore of the Mississippi to a point below Dam 16 on that River. Transmission lines will connect the project with a source of steam standby electric current at Davenport, Iowa, 24 miles up the Mississippi. The plant is expected to produce 200,000,000 kwh. of marketable power per year, of which 151,000,000 kwh. will be firm energy in an average year. ”

“ In a comparison of floor areas per kilowatt of main generator capacities in electric stations using water- and those using steam-power, the matter of space for transformers may be entirely omitted, because the extent of this space is independent of the type or location of water-wheels, or the difference of water and steam as motive powers. Where water-wheels and their connected generators occupy separate rooms, as is often the case with turbines under low pressures, the wheel room has a little less length, and is generally narrower than the generator room. ”

“ Generally, water so secured will have to be raised to an elevated reservoir by some mechanical force. If the demand is to be a large one, and if the community can afford the cost, the most reliable plan will be to use steam-power for pumping; but in smaller places, and where economy is a great object, wind-power may serve an excellent purpose.
If a stream of pure water is available at a sufficient height, it may be led directly to the reservoir, or its current may be used to drive a water-wheel sufficient to do the pumping. ”

“ The use of a larger number of units than would otherwise be necessary in order to avoid a very low speed is further illustrated by the 7,500-kilowatt plant of the Missouri River Power Company, at Cañon Ferry, Mont. This capacity is made up of ten generators, each rated at 750 kilowatts and direct-connected to a pair of pressure turbine wheels operating at 157 revolutions per minute, under a head of about 32 feet.
Under comparatively high heads of water pressure turbines operate at speeds that are ample for direct-connection to even the largest dynamos. ”