Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant | |
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![]() Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant in 2011 | |
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Country |
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Location | Ames, Colorado, United States |
Coordinates | 37°51′52.88″N107°52′55.18″W / 37.8646889°N 107.8819944°W |
Status | Operational |
Commission date | 1891 |
Owner(s) | Xcel Energy |
Thermal power station | |
Turbine technology | Hydroelectric |
Power generation | |
Units operational | 1 |
Nameplate capacity | 3.75 MW |
External links | |
Commons | Related media on Commons |
The Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant, constructed in 1890 near Ophir, Colorado, was one of the first (if not the first) commercial system to produce and transmit alternating current (AC) electricity for industrial use and one of the first AC hydro-electric plants ever constructed. [1] It became operational in 1891 and was built by Westinghouse Electric around two of their large alternators. One was set up in the valley as a generator and driven by water. It was connected by a 2.6-mile (4.2 km) transmission line to the second alternator used as a motor up at the Gold King Mine to drive the mining operation. The facility has been changed and upgraded over the years but is still in operation. It is now on the List of IEEE Milestones. [2]
The need to power a stamp mill to process ore at the Gold King Mine up in the mountains near Ophir, Colorado drove major stock holder Lucien L. Nunn to seek a less expensive alternative to the wood powered steam mill at the site. Timber fuel was in scarce supply at the mines 12,000 foot height and coal could not be used because there was no railroad leading to the mine. The San Miguel River 3000 feet down the slope 3 miles from the mine looked to be a good power source but some of the methods of transmitting the power including water powered compressed air and belt drives did not seem feasible. Lucien's brother Paul, an electrical engineer, began looking into using electric motors to drive the plant. A 220 volt direct current electric system was found to be too expensive due to the size of the copper conductors needed to transmit such a low voltage the distances they were contemplating. A high voltage alternating current system looked more promising so they contacted Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania based Westinghouse Electric in 1890 and convinced them to supply an electricity driven system based on alternating current technology. [3]
The AC system was engineered and installed by Westinghouse employees V.G. Converse, Lewis B. Stillwell, Charles F. Scott, and Ralph D. Mershon with the assistance of engineering students they recruited from Cornell University. [4] In the summer of 1890 Westinghouse delivered the equipment and the engineers installed it later that winter. The system consisted of two identical 100-hp Westinghouse single-phase alternators (the largest the company made at the time). One was set up in a generator house, initially just a wooden shed, in the small settlement of Ames where the Howard Fork and Lake Fork streams joined to form the San Miguel River, just outside Ophir. Used as a generator, it produced 3000 volt, 133 Hertz, single-phase AC. It was driven by a six-foot Pelton wheel under a 320-foot (98 m) head of water carried in a 2 ft diameter steel pipe supplied by the Howard Fork and Lake Fork as well as natural reservoirs up hill from the plant. [5] The electricity was transmitted 2.6 miles (4.2 km) up the mountain to the mine via two bare copper wires mounted on poles using Western Union cross-arms with insulators. Total wire costs were about US $700, about 1% of the cost estimated for a direct-current line. At the mine the second 100-hp Westinghouse alternator was installed in the role of a synchronous AC motor to drive the stamping mill. A smaller single-phase induction motor (a new type of motor developed from patents Westinghouse had licensed from inventor Nikola Tesla) was installed as a starter motor to spin the larger alternator up to match the synchronous speed of the generator. [3]
The power system became operational on 19 June 1891 and was run continuously for the first 30 days. The entire plant required 15 to 20 attendants for its operation. The instruments and controls were rudimentary, solenoid type gravity balance Voltmeters and ammeters mounted on lacquered wooden boards. Workers had to take special care because of the high voltages used. Power was connected by closing simple knife switches and the system was shut down (the electrical circuit "opened") by a worker grabbing a connecting line at the power pole and pulling it out of the arc-light style plug mounted on the pole (a sometime dangerous maneuver that produced 6 to 8 foot (1.83-m to 2.44-m) long high voltage arcs). [3] One continual problem was repairing damage from lightning strikes, a common occurrence at the mountainous location. The alternators were set on paraffin-soaked oak platforms to add insulation and Westinghouse engineers tried various types of lightning arresters. The alternators were designed with removable parts making the task of repairing them a little easier.
With the success of the plant the Nunns started installing similar systems at their other mining operations. In 1896 the Ames plant was rebuilt with a new two-phase system with new generators and induction motors along with step-up transformers to boost the power to 10,000 volts for longer distance transmission. [6] The water supply was also expanded.
The Ames plant became part of the Nunn’s Telluride Power Company which would later become part of Western Colorado Power Company, formed as a wholly owned subsidiary of Utah Power and Light. [7] Public Service Company acquired the plant with other Colorado Ute properties in 1992. [8]
A 1905 vintage power house is still in service for Public Service Company, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy, [8] with two Pelton wheels powering a single 1904 General Electric generator, with output of 2,400 volts, and 1,082 amperes at a speed of 225 R.P.M.
The Ames power station was built at the end of a decade that saw the rapid expansion in the use of alternating current as a power transmission format. During this period Westinghouse was in stiff competition with other AC companies as well with Thomas Edison's direct current based Edison Electric Company. A propaganda campaign/"war of currents" had even broken out between Westinghouse and Edison. Westinghouse Electric looked on the Ames project as a great way to demonstrate the capability of the AC system they had been developing since they installed their first AC transformer based lighting systems in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in March 1886. [3] [9]
The 1891 Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant is one of the oldest power plants to produce and transmit alternating current for an industrial purposes. [10] It predated by one month the Lauffen Dam to Frankfurt power-transmission system at International Electrotechnical Exhibition that powered lights and some electric motors. [11]
As a hydro-electric plant in the US it was predated by the Oregon-based Willamette Falls Electric Company, the first AC hydro-electric generation facility, in 1889, which included a 14-mile-long (23-kilometre) transmission line to Portland, used to power arc lighting. [12] [13] The oldest hydroelectric power plant supplying a commercial transmission system for alternating current was the power plant Thorenberg near Lucerne in Switzerland. The plant started operation in May 1886 and fed 1,800 volts to a nearly 3-mile-long (4.8 km) transmission line. It was transformed to 100 volts to illuminate some hotels and restaurants in the downtown area of the city. [14]
The original Ames/Gold King plant is also notable for the small starter motor used, an early use of the induction motor, a new efficient commutator-less design that would later become commonplace. The patent for the motor had been licensed by Westinghouse from Nikola Tesla two years earlier and was being developed by Charles F. Scott, but engineering problems and the general shortage of cash the company was going through was holding back development. [15] Westinghouse eventually introduced their "Tesla" poly-phase transmission/motor system in 1893. [16]
Electric power transmission is the bulk movement of electrical energy from a generating site, such as a power plant, to an electrical substation. The interconnected lines that facilitate this movement form a transmission network. This is distinct from the local wiring between high-voltage substations and customers, which is typically referred to as electric power distribution. The combined transmission and distribution network is part of electricity delivery, known as the electrical grid.
Three-phase electric power is a common type of alternating current (AC) used in electricity generation, transmission, and distribution. It is a type of polyphase system employing three wires and is the most common method used by electrical grids worldwide to transfer power.
Alternating current (AC) is an electric current that periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time, in contrast to direct current (DC), which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in which electric power is delivered to businesses and residences, and it is the form of electrical energy that consumers typically use when they plug kitchen appliances, televisions, fans and electric lamps into a wall socket. The abbreviations AC and DC are often used to mean simply alternating and direct, respectively, as when they modify current or voltage.
George Westinghouse Jr. was an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who created the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, receiving his first patent at the age of 19. Westinghouse saw the potential of using alternating current for electric power distribution in the early 1880s and put all his resources into developing and marketing it. This put Westinghouse's business in direct competition with Thomas Edison, who marketed direct current for electric power distribution. In 1911 Westinghouse received the American Institute of Electrical Engineers's (AIEE) Edison Medal "For meritorious achievement in connection with the development of the alternating current system". He founded the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1886.
In electricity generation, a generator is a device that converts motion-based power or fuel-based power into electric power for use in an external circuit. Sources of mechanical energy include steam turbines, gas turbines, water turbines, internal combustion engines, wind turbines and even hand cranks. The first electromagnetic generator, the Faraday disk, was invented in 1831 by British scientist Michael Faraday. Generators provide nearly all the power for electrical grids.
Electric power distribution is the final stage in the delivery of electricity. Electricity is carried from the transmission system to individual consumers. Distribution substations connect to the transmission system and lower the transmission voltage to medium voltage ranging between 2 kV and 33 kV with the use of transformers. Primary distribution lines carry this medium voltage power to distribution transformers located near the customer's premises. Distribution transformers again lower the voltage to the utilization voltage used by lighting, industrial equipment and household appliances. Often several customers are supplied from one transformer through secondary distribution lines. Commercial and residential customers are connected to the secondary distribution lines through service drops. Customers demanding a much larger amount of power may be connected directly to the primary distribution level or the subtransmission level.
An alternator is an electrical generator that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current. For reasons of cost and simplicity, most alternators use a rotating magnetic field with a stationary armature. Occasionally, a linear alternator or a rotating armature with a stationary magnetic field is used. In principle, any AC electrical generator can be called an alternator, but usually, the term refers to small rotating machines driven by automotive and other internal combustion engines.
The war of the currents was a series of events surrounding the introduction of competing electric power transmission systems in the late 1880s and early 1890s. It grew out of two lighting systems developed in the late 1870s and early 1880s; arc lamp street lighting running on high-voltage alternating current (AC), and large-scale low-voltage direct current (DC) indoor incandescent lighting being marketed by Thomas Edison's company. In 1886, the Edison system was faced with new competition: an alternating current system initially introduced by George Westinghouse's company that used transformers to step down from a high voltage so AC could be used for indoor lighting. Using high voltage allowed an AC system to transmit power over longer distances from more efficient large central generating stations. As the use of AC spread rapidly with other companies deploying their own systems, the Edison Electric Light Company claimed in early 1888 that high voltages used in an alternating current system were hazardous, and that the design was inferior to, and infringed on the patents behind, their direct current system.
The utility frequency, (power) line frequency or mains frequency is the nominal frequency of the oscillations of alternating current (AC) in a wide area synchronous grid transmitted from a power station to the end-user. In large parts of the world this is 50 Hz, although in the Americas and parts of Asia it is typically 60 Hz. Current usage by country or region is given in the list of mains electricity by country.
Power engineering, also called power systems engineering, is a subfield of electrical engineering that deals with the generation, transmission, distribution, and utilization of electric power, and the electrical apparatus connected to such systems. Although much of the field is concerned with the problems of three-phase AC power – the standard for large-scale power transmission and distribution across the modern world – a significant fraction of the field is concerned with the conversion between AC and DC power and the development of specialized power systems such as those used in aircraft or for electric railway networks. Power engineering draws the majority of its theoretical base from electrical engineering and mechanical engineering.
Grimeton Radio Station in southern Sweden, close to Varberg in Halland, is an early longwave transatlantic wireless telegraphy station built in 1922–1924, that has been preserved as a historical site. From the 1920s through the 1940s it was used to transmit telegram traffic by Morse code to North America and other countries, and during World War II was Sweden's only telecommunication link with the rest of the world. It is the only remaining example of an early pre-electronic radio transmitter technology called an Alexanderson alternator. It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2004, with the statement: "Grimeton Radio Station, Varberg is an exceptionally well preserved example of a type of telecommunication centre, representing the technological achievements by the early 1920s, as well as documenting the further development over some three decades." The radio station is also an anchor site for the European Route of Industrial Heritage. The transmitter is still in operational condition, and each year on a day called Alexanderson Day is started up and transmits brief Morse code test transmissions, which can be received all over Europe.
An Alexanderson alternator is a rotating machine, developed by Ernst Alexanderson beginning in 1904, for the generation of high-frequency alternating current for use as a radio transmitter. It was one of the first devices capable of generating the continuous radio waves needed for transmission of amplitude modulated (AM) signals by radio. It was used from about 1910 in a few "superpower" longwave radiotelegraphy stations to transmit transoceanic message traffic by Morse code to similar stations all over the world.
Folsom Powerhouse State Historic Park is a historical site preserving an 1895 alternating current (AC) hydroelectric power station—one of the first in the United States.
Adams Power Plant Transformer House in Niagara Falls, New York is a National Historic Landmarked building constructed in 1895. It is the only remaining structure that was part of the historic Edward Dean Adams Power Plant, the first large-scale, alternating current electric generating plant in the world, built in 1895. The building's eponym was Edward Dean Adams, a businessman and entrepreneur in the electrical field.
An electric power system is a network of electrical components deployed to supply, transfer, and use electric power. An example of a power system is the electrical grid that provides power to homes and industries within an extended area. The electrical grid can be broadly divided into the generators that supply the power, the transmission system that carries the power from the generating centers to the load centers, and the distribution system that feeds the power to nearby homes and industries.
Electric power transmission, the tools and means of moving electricity far from where it is generated, date back to the late 19th century. They include the movement of electricity in bulk and the delivery of electricity to individual customers ("distribution"). In the beginning, the two terms were used interchangeably.
Bridal Veil Falls is a 365-foot waterfall at the end of the box canyon overlooking Telluride, Colorado. Hiking and off-road trails pass by the falls and it has a hydroelectric power plant at its top. In winter the frozen shape of the falls forms an imposing challenge to intrepid ice climbers.
Jaruga Hydroelectric Power Plant is a hydroelectric power plant on river Krka, located in Šibenik-Knin County, in central Dalmatia, Croatia.
The Smuggler-Union Hydroelectric Powerplant, also known as the Bridal Veil Powerhouse, is an electric power generation plant and residence located next to Bridal Veil Falls on a 400-foot (120 m) cliff overlooking Telluride, Colorado. The structure is 2+1⁄2 stories on a poured concrete foundation with a wood frame superstructure. It consists of a main power plant building, a 1+1⁄2-story residence and a 1-story cookhouse. The power plant foundation is distinctive, with semicircular windows. A semicircular bay with arched windows projects out on a rock spur.
Single-phase generator is an alternating current electrical generator that produces a single, continuously alternating voltage. Single-phase generators can be used to generate power in single-phase electric power systems. However, polyphase generators are generally used to deliver power in three-phase distribution system and the current is converted to single-phase near the single-phase loads instead. Therefore, single-phase generators are found in applications that are most often used when the loads being driven are relatively light, and not connected to a three-phase distribution, for instance, portable engine-generators. Larger single-phase generators are also used in special applications such as single-phase traction power for railway electrification systems.
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