u A. TRANSACTIONS OF THE NEW YORK ELECTRICAL SOCIETY WEftPlAN OFTHB cm A PAPER BEAD BEFORE THE OFTHB NEW YORK ELECTBICAL SOCffiTl JAN.15,1902 EA.CPEHRINE3).SC Transactions of the New York Electrical Society Power Plants of the Pacific Coast By F. A. C. Perrine, D. Sc. A Paper read before the 22Oth Meeting January I5th, 1902 Number Seven Copyrighted, 1902 By the New York Electrical Society 114 Liberty Street New York THE S.K.C. SYSTEM OF LONG DISTANCE ELECTRIC TRANSMlSSIO IN CALIFORNIA STANDARD ELECTRIC CD'S LINES BAY COUNTIES POWER CO'S LINES Railroads SCALE OF MI1_ES Copynght 1901. b, St.nle, El.ctnc Mf*. C From Colgate to Oakland, where the Bay Counties line ends, is one hundred and fifty-two (152) miles. From Oakland to San Francisco by way of the Standard Company's line is seventy (70) miles. The tying-in at Oakland gives therefore a transmission of two hundred and twenty-two (222) miles from Colgate to San Francisco. Power is taken backward, so to speak, from Mission San Jose over the Electra line as far as Stockton. Here, energy aggregating several thousand horse-power is distributed in every day hard commercial service at a distance of two hundred and eighteen (218) miles from its point of generation. The Power Plants of the Pacific Coast By F. A. C. Perrlne, D. Sc. An overhead cableway is the only means of crossing the Yuba at the power-house ; the blow-off from the impulse wheels fur- nishes the background. frontiers are always and have ever been places where men thought and used their hands and brains to accomplish work not easy and almost incredible to the man bred under the influences of life made easy by machinery. This is no less true in the frontiers of history and thought than in the frontiers of country and civilization. The civilized Egyptians were frontiers- men in engineering, and accomplished buildings and pyramids which are our wonder, for though to-day their buildings would be expensive, without being difficult, it is our wonder that any race of men should have undertaken tasks so great. Greece built for all time for the reason that though she had thinkers who were creative, she had no repair shops, and she was willing, as we are not, to build so that when one piece of work was done, no one need worry over its care, but all devote their energies to planning and building better and greater. So in the history of our Pacific Coast. Capt. Lewis, a man of brain and metal, and Lieut. Clark, a man of no less brain or metal, but lacking what we call education, with forty-five men of like courage, stemmed the Missouri, crossed the mountains, sailed down the Columbia to its mouth on an expedition of pure scientific discovery, and returning, left in the archives of our Government a report which for accuracy of scientific observation and fullness of detail has not since been excelled. The spirit of Lewis and Clark, and of Fremont and Hayden, whose three expeditions opened the whole Coast, pervades the country they dis- covered. The very soil seems to have taken from these men a principle which has made it capable of nourishing men of courage and resource. In nothing is this made more evident than in the character of the elec- trical undertakings on the entire length of the Pacific Coast. Power Plants of the Pacific Coast Flume Tender's Cabin on the Colgate Flume Spillway or Overflow Drain from the Colgate Flume The center picture is a point on the Colgate Flume known as Cape Horn, and illustrates some of the difficulties encountered and successfully engineered To emphasize this I need but call to your minds that for the past twenty years in the history of electrical engineering there has not been a time during which, remarkable work on the Pacific Coast has not attracted attention. In San Francisco was one of the first lighting companies, and one of the very first attempts by a public lighting company to light a large city on a comprehensive plan. Power transmission at constant current was first used on the Coast, where not only a io,ooovolt motor circuit was installed in San Francisco, but long-distance transmission was also actually performed in the mines with as much success as attended electrical machinery anywhere at the time, and the failure, as far as it was a failure, was due to the faults of design and manufacture of that day, while attempting problems which ad- mitted no failure in their solution. Men's lives, as well as the finan- cial success of such undertakings, depend on absolute continuity in mining operations. Later on The interior of the Colgate Flume measures S}4 by 6 feet, and the grade is 9 feet to the mile long-distance single-phase alter- Power Plants of At times of light load portions of the stream shoot out into the river without striking the buckets of the impulse wheels. No attempt is made to " control " the flow of water by the governing apparatus, and some- times the stream reaches clear across the canon. nating lighting was installed at Pomona in Southern California, and single- phase power transmission at Bodie. Walla Walla, Washington, saw one of the first single-phase power transmission plants, and the plant at Redlands proved first the success of multiphase working. Nevada City first proved the commercial success of transmission to the mines and mine working. The installation of the Folsom and Portland plants are not yet forgotten, and finally we have the remarkable installations at Snoqualmie Falls, Washington, the Southern California 33,ooo-volt, 83-mile transmission, the Bay Counties with 1 44-mile transmission, and the Standard Electric Company, part of whose 154 miles of transmission, being used in connection with the Bay Counties plant, enables that Company to hold the magnificent record of an actual every day transmission of over 220 miles. We then see that the notable work on the Pacific Coast is not confined to the last few years or to any particular locality ; from the north to the south, plants are scattered which merit attention and study, particularly to many of us who are not familiar with any work at all similar. Among the plants themselves perhaps no one has attracted more attention or excited more discussion than the remarkable one at Snoqualmie Falls. Certainly no plant has a more remarkable or beautiful situation. The railroad itself which leads to this place startles one as it climbs into the the Pacific Coast to IS tc Power Plants of Supporting Insulators of the Great Carquinez Span The Four Anchorages of the Span Cables One of the Strain Insulators, each Housed Separately Cascade Mountains, by its curves and trestles and trestles with curves combined. Finally the little power town with its brilliant lights in their setting of river, gorge and high water-fall and magnificent spruce forest is reached and one is startled by the beauty of the setting. The lights of the town and wires of the lines are evident, but no power- house, for here they have adopted the startling plan of excavating a cavern for the power-house within the very rock over which the falls plunge. To reach it you enter a little cabin near the forebay and are lowered by an elevator down the shaft, which also accommodates the pen- stock, and 250 feet below the surface reach the machine room where are located six 1 50o-kilowatt generators in a large white- washed cavern cut out of the solid granite rock. Unfortunately, the history of this plant has been marred by discus- sion and gossip over a ridiculous design of water-wheel at first adopted. But, as at present equipped, this plant is giving successful and continuous service. The plant is located as it is for the reasoBi that the spray from the falls would have made impracticable any power-house The Leaning Tower of the Carquinez s pan the Pacific Coast at their foot, and to have gone further down the river would have necessitated a location around a bend to which a channel must have been cut at an expense probably greater than that for the present work. This plant disputes with the Standard Electric Company of California the honor of being first to use aluminum for transmission lines. The lines were erected at about the same time, but those of the Standard Company were the first to be put into service, and being more care- fully strung were the more successful from the start. Probably no mountain Redwood City Sub-station and River Crossing lines have cost more for rights of way than those from this plant, for not only do they surmount difficult mountains, but they lead through continuous forests of dense spruce and fir of great size, which are all carefully cleared away against the possibility of their falling and interrupting the service. Power is transmitted at 60 cycles to the cities of Seattle and Tacoma, where lights and rail- ways are operated. In Seattle, rotary transfor- mers are used for the conversion, but in Ta- coma motor -generator sets are employed and regulation obtained by a combination of syn- chronous and induction motors. Much of the An Angle in One of the High Tension Lines COinplaint and Criticism Power Plants of High Tension Line Construction. The center picture is of a Standard Company cable stringing cart of this plant seems to have been due to the apparent fact that there is little harmony between the seller and the largest users of power, and both the large companies at Seattle and at Tacoma are at present installing some steam in spite of the fact that at no other point on the Coast is power sold at a lower rate, and that the difficulties with regulation and general service from the plant are largely chargeable to the attitude of the users of the power themselves. As regards the plant itself one feels compelled to admire the boldness and adaptability of the scheme. Of course as one descends on the elevator into the cavern below the falls, the fear of something new and untried overcomes him and the strangeness of the plan warps his judgment, but let me assure you that there is much more to admire and much less to* criticise about this remarkable plant than is commonly assumed by those who have not seen it. Turning now southward along the Coast, we come to the Portland plant; remarkable not for its solution of a problem of cloudlike spray and great water pressure, but one equally difficult of a great volume of water with severely varying head. Wherever we go on the Pacific Coast there are seasons of no super- abundance of water, and in every plant there are times when efficiency must be looked to most sharply and for which the location of the wheels and their hydraulic connection be chosen. In this particular case the wheels proper for the minimum flow of water had to be located much below the surface of the maximum high-water, and furthermore, at the seasons of the great floods these falls become an almost insignificant rapid, for the reason that at this the Pacific Coast The up-hill work is not easy The end pictures represent respectively one of the mountain carts loaded with a section of armature, and the same armature in place to be snubbed down the power-house hill point the river is confined between narrow rocky walls which allow no over- flooded country below the falls. It is quite obvious that no water wheel can be designed capable of operation at full load and full speed with its normal head reduced from 60 to So per cent, and, in consequence, large auxiliary wheels are provided, arranged for belting to the shafts of the high head wheels, and in order that the high water may not flood generators, belting and bearings, the building is made water-tight from its foundations to 3 feet above the machine floor, and the lighting of the wheel pits and belting space provided by regular marine water- tight screw port holes. The armatures of the generators are attached to the vertical shafts of the high head wheels, and while in general appearance these machines remind one of the Niagara machines, they are essentially different in revolving an internal armature in place of an external field. No attempt at parallel running is made here, but each generator feeds an independent The end of the Flume or Penstock. From here five lines of pipe, each 1500 feet long, lead down to the power-house. The vertical fall is over 700 feet The headgates are situated on top of the Penstock, from which point a glorious view is obtained The center picture illustrates the method of anchoring the pipes in massive concrete piers Power Plants of line and supplies an independent service, some being employed in lighting and some in driving rotary converters or synchronous motors no more than one machine being coupled to any one generator. The original transformer equipment consists of banks of small units, and in spite of the complexity of the system as a whole, the original equipment is still in service. Indeed, it is remarkable and interesting to hear the engineer whose days have been made full and whose nights have been made sleepless by this complex plant, declare that from his experience the best plant is one of independent gener- ators and motors, and to hear him speak of machines with high inductance and almost no regulation to mention, as being in all respects the best adapted to continuous service, while to one familiar with more modern plants there is nothing so remarkable about the installation as the energy of this man who Interior of the Mission San Jose Switching Station the Pacific Coast keeps it all running and giving satisfactory service. Mr. Thompson is the true pioneer operator of a pioneer transmission plant. As we move southward into Califor- nia, the power plants begin to multiply, and connected with every one is some- thing, generally, much of interest. Many have historical importance, though mOSt ^witching Station and Lightning Arrester House at Mission San Jose have long ceased to attract particular attention. The traveler in the mountains finds, far away from any appear- ance of civilization, a well-kept canal, or ditch, as these pioneer engineers would call it, and following it for a few miles, a low, constant, not unmusical note reaches his ear, and he knows that beneath his feet along; the river O bank lies one of those power plants, ceaselessly generating current to be used in the neighboring mines or the distant cities. Throughout the center of the State a constant type of plant prevails, and it will be of more interest to confine our attention to two most remarkable recent plants than to attempt to mention the many. The type of plant to which we refer is that of one supplied with water in a ditch varying from 5 to 50 miles in length, producing, by its combination of the rapids along the river, a head of from 300 to 1500 feet, which is utilized with impulse wheels running at a high speed and direct connected to generators. These feed step -up transformers and the high-voltage current is transmitted for use over distances of from 5 to 200 miles and more. The two central California plants to which I wish particularly One of the Banks of Lightning Arresters at the Mission San Jose Station Power Plants of A i2O,ooo-volt Arc between the Needle Points of a Spark Gap in the Testing Room at Electra to direct attention at present are the plants of the Standard Electric Company and the Bay Counties Power Company. Both of these plants are great and long-distance extensions of small undertakings, though the growth of the Standard Company's plant is the more notable and worthy of the greatest attention for the reason that this plant was more original in its conception and the more remarkable in the manner in which that conception has been carried out. The Bay Counties Power Company is a growth from two small plants within 30 miles of each other, situated in the Sierra Mountains, the original of the two being the plant of the Nevada County Power Company supplying Nevada City and its neighboring towns, which is really remarkable on account of the fact that it was one of the first, if not the very first plant in California entirely successful as a financial undertaking, and one which from its original period of oper- ation, successfully carried out the difficult undertaking of sup- plying mines with power. The other part of the Bay Counties Company was originally more moderate as an undertaking but O has grown to be the more im- portant side of the business. This company was the Yuba Power Company, using a fall in one of the irrigating ditches and High Potential Testing Outfit at Electra. Every insulator must withstand a strain of 1 20,000 volts the Pacific Coast returning its tail water to the ditch for further distribution in irrigation. o t> From these beginnings, the Bay Counties Power Company has grown by reaching out after business wherever it was offered and developing water powers wherever they were reasonably available for such purposes, and the success which attended the original elements of this company has been con- tinued during its entire growth. O O The Standard Electric Company is not so much a growth as an achieve- ment. Thirty years ago the Blue Lakes Water Company was incorporated for the purpose of furnishing water to the mines in Amador County, and a ditch system considerably in excess of eighty miles in length was constructed. For many years the company was very prosperous, but with the decline in mining through that section of the mother lode and the complete extinction of hydraulic mining, the property became only reasonably profitable. While the company was in this condition Prince Andre Poniatowski came to California with the plan of taking up mining properties that had proven to be only partially successful, developing them, and so forming from many small and unprofitable mining concerns, one large and prosperous. Incidental to this plan he joined the Blue Lakes Water Company in building an electric plant on the Mokelumne River, where a head of 1000 feet was available, and The i2O,ooo-volt Arc Just Before Rupturing distributing power to his mines with the idea of cheapening their cost of operation. A plant was installed and successfully operated, but as Prince Poniatowski be- came more familiar with power operations in California and the condition of mining in the mother lode, he came to the conclu- sion that a great power plant could be formed with the Blue Lakes Company as Sub-station a nucleus. Accordingly he purchased the Blue Lakes Company and formed the Standard Electric Company of California, which company announced its intention of transmitting power to the City of San Francisco, a distance then estimated at 1 10 miles. The plan was a bold one and has been boldly carried Interior oi Temescal the Pacific Coast The left-hand picture shows a transformer being loaded into a mountain wagon. The right-hand picture is of the same outfit showing the mules ready to start out, without at any time, during the development of the scheme, ideas less than practical being allowed to prevail in the councils of the company. Previous to the issuance of the specifications for the machinery the best engineers of the country were consulted in regard to the manner in which the work was to be done, and nothing incorporated in these specifications not then considered feasible by a number of the best engineers. Indeed, the boldest thing about this problem, namely the operation at about 50,000 volts, was proposed by the Stanley Electric Manufacturing Company of Pittsfield, Mass., as manufacturers, and the contract let them on account of the saving they were willing to guaran- tee above the Standard Company's engi- neers' estimates, made possible by the increased voltages they would undertake to operate. This company has now been building its plant for about four The upper left-hand picture is of the ditch under construction. The lower right-hand picture is of one completed. The center view is of a point where cutting through solid rock was necessary. Power Plants of Construction Work. The end views are of work on a dam 210 feet high. That in the center illustrates hydraulic excavation for the Electra power-house years and will continue to build without supplying power until it is satisfied that the work is done, and so thoroughly done that there can be no question as to the continuity of the service. In the first place storage reservoirs in the high Sierras have been provided for an estimated storage of water amounting to 150 days equal to the maximum dry period the records of the State can show are to be anticipated. These reservoirs, situated at elevations varying from 6000 to 8000 feet above sea level, in Alpine County, where there are only eighty inhabitants, exclusive of Indians, are provided with dams built in a most thorough manner and cared for most regularly. From these reser- voirs the water is allowed to flow down fifty miles of the channel of the river to the diverting dam near the West Point Bridge, where it is taken out of the river and carried along in a ditch about 25 feet wide and 5 feet deep to the crest of a hill above the power plant, from which a wood stave pipe line 3000 feet long leads to where a sheer descent can be made to the power plant itself, which is This is an illustration of the construction of Lake Francis Supplied by a head of I45O dam. The dirt, instead of being conveyed in the usual manner, ,. . , . was " washed " to its destination. A pipe, containing a line of ICCt With a length OI pipe of perforations, located on falsework above the site of the dam, , was made to receive a mixture of dirt and water and the latter Only about 3600 feet. It Can allowed to ooze through the perforations until the filling-in was completed. readily be seen that the flow of the Pacific Coast water in twenty miles of ditch cannot be regulated to suit the variation in load likely to be experienced by the plant, and in order that the ditch may be used with a constant flow, a reservoir is provided into which any surplus of water that may be flowing above that demanded by the load can be retained until a peak load period is reached, when the surplus above the ditch capacity is sup- plied from the reservoir. With a hill so steep, down which the pipe line is laid, it can be readily seen that no reservoir site is available between the plant and the ditch. Accordingly a bold plan is adopted of storing the water in a valley across the mountain from the power-house and leading the water back to the power-house side of the mountain through a tunnel about 3000 feet in length. For the best efficiency the wheels must run at half the spouting velocity of the water, which in this case is as high as 18,000 feet per minute. In other words, the peripheral speed of these water wheels amounts to 9000 feet per minute. They are 1 1 feet in diameter and run at 240 turns. Two wheels each of 1000 kilowatts capacity are attached to each generator and five sets of wheels and generators are installed. From the pow r er-house the lines lead through hill and dale through the city of Stockton on to the little The Interior of Electra. The machines are placed diagonally in order to minimize the angle in the pipes bringing the water under 1 500 feet head Power Plants of town of Mission San Jose along the shores of San Francisco Bay, a distance of 100 miles from the power plant. At this point the lines diverge north and south and are here controlled as a center of distribution for the system. Thence they run north about 28 miles to Oakland and south to San Jose, around the Bay and up to the north to San Francisco, making a total trans- mission distance of 154 miles 34 miles farther than was originally contem- plated, for the reason that originally it was intended to cross the hills direct to Oakland and cross the Bay direct to San Francisco, but permission could not be obtained from the Government to erect poles and cross the lo-mile stretch of navigable water between Oakland and San Francisco, whereas the expense of submarine cables would have amounted to as much as the remaining expense of the entire line. The change in the distance and the lengthening of the line being made further justifiable by the fact that all around the Bay are towns large and small, which form satisfactory customers for the power. The plant is now nearing completion, but as I have already ;said, these men who have invested in the Standard Electric Company have faith enough in the engineering that they are doing to be so sure of success that they are unwilling to experiment with their customers, and only enter upon their period of regular operation after they have satisfied themselves with their plans and their construction work. In Oakland, San Jose and San Francisco they have added as an additional safeguard against inter- ruption of service storage battery plants, and have installed for charging Part of the Lightning Arrester Equipment at Electra The Switchroom at Electra the 6o,ooo-volt Switches May be Observed on both Sides of the Room the Pacific Coast Another View of the Interior of Klectra Power-house these motor-generator sets capable of being used in such a manner that should accident occur along the line, both the alternating-current and direct- current service can be maintained by means of the batteries. This company is entitled to much of the credit for the exceedingly long-distance trans- missions on the Pacific Coast, and 'while it may be unfortunate for their immediate glory that other plants are in operation before theirs is ready, their customers in later years will have reason to thank them for the care with which they have taken every step. Since their plans were laid out and the work begun, the Bay Counties Company found that they could make a contract with the Folsom Company who supply Sacramento and whose plant was deficient in capacity. Accordingly they built to that city a line 60 miles in length which they operate at 40,000 volts, supplying current in conjunction with the 10,000- volt plant 20 miles away at Folsom. The two plants, one at Colgate, 60 miles from Sacramento^. operating in parallel with the Folsom plant 20 miles from Sacramento. Later on the Bay Counties Company built, and is now operating, a line 152 miles in length from their plant to the City of Oakland. To reach this city they had to cross the navigable straits of Carquinez, through which the deep- water grain ships go from San Francisco Bay to the principal coast grain shipping port of Porta Costa. Fortunately these straits are bordered with high hills. At these hills they erected towers and stretched their cables with a span exceeding 4000 feet, effecting one of the most remarkable feats that has ever been attempted in long-distance power transmission. As the sub-stations and lines to this point belonging to the Standard Electric Company were ready for operation, this company has bought a large amount of power from the Bay Counties Power Company, which they transmit south to Mission San Jose and thence to Stockton, San Jose and up around the Bay as far as Redwood City, effecting a total transmission for the Bay Counties Company of 198 miles to San Jose, 200 miles to Redwood City, and 218 miles to Stockton. These distances are met successfully in every day working, and the interruptions in supply have at no time been serious, nor has there at any time been any reason to feel that the work is at all of an experimental character. Up at Colgate their generators run day and night supplying power to these distant points with the result that the company is successful, not only from an engineering point of view, but financially successful with the success that has given confidence and strength to all The Electra Power-house is on the Bank of the Mokelumne Another View of the Electra Power-house with the Hotel Standard in the Distance. The 1 500 foot drop in the pipe line can also be observed in the distance the Pacific Coast An Interior View of Colgate, showing the Electric Generators and Turbine Casings on the Right and the Transformers on the Left electrical transmission securities along the Pacific Coast. These plants operate lights, mines, railroads, flour mills, and in every operation have given such service to their customers that in spite of the fact of recent discoveries of large quantities of fuel oil, their only difficulty is to find enough power to supply the demand made upon them. I might go further and describe the power plant of the Big Creek Company, whose lines run along the seashore and operate almost continu- ously in a sea of fog, or that of the Fresno Company, which was the first with the exception of that at the Chollar Mine at Virginia City to operate at a head exceeding one thousand feet, or to give a description of the plant at Bakersfield, where electric power is preferred to a ditch system for irrigation, but in describing these plants I would only be repeating what has been said concerning them, or repeat descriptions, which, on a larger scale, would apply to the two plants that have just been mentioned. Instead of going over these in detail I prefer finally to call your attention to the collection of plants feeding into the city of Los Angeles. In this region were the first really long-distance transmission plants, that at Pomona, a single-phase lighting plant where the power for lighting was transmitted a distance of 28 miles at 10,000 volts. From this beginning, one plant after another has been installed, until finally in 1898 the plant of the Southern California Electric Company was built with a transmission of 80 miles at 33,000 volts. Shortly after this plant was constructed a consolidation of interests centering in Los Angeles was made, and now there is there daily effected parallel running to a most remarkable extent. Alternators of both revolving field and revolving armature types and of different makes are running in parallel and supplying together power for railroads and lights in conjunction with steam-driven plants without a thought of such troubles as are supposed to come from the coupling in parallel of steam engines or of engines with water wheels, and yet there is nothing that has been done to effect this successful operation which can be considered remarkable for ingenuity ; simply the plants have been well engineered, well installed and are well operated. After all, this sums up everything that has at all attracted your attention in connection with work I have been describing. The problems of the Pacific Coast are problems for the trained engineer. No rule of thumb principles is applicable. The men encountering these problems must be and have been men with independent minds men capable of realizing the difficulties and not frightened by them. They are frontiers- men, undaunted, unafraid and resourceful. One of the Lakes in Alpine County Con- stituting Part of the Standard Company's Reservoir The Hotel Standard at F.lectra for the Engineers and Attendants of the Power-house The Standard Company's High-pressure Pipe Line Arranged by Ray D. Lillibridge and printed by Bartlett & Company The Orr Press, New York THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE.