VARIOUS ENGINEERING PROJECTS - (ALPHABETICAL)
Ambuklao Dam, Philippines
Ambuklao Dam is a dam that supports a hydroelectric plant in the mountains of Bokod, Benguet province of Philippines. With maximum water storage capacity of 327,170,000 cubic metres (265,240 acre·ft), the dam, located 36 km (22 mi) from Baguio city, can produce 75 megawatts of electricity to Luzon grid. The main source of water comes from the Agno River, the longest waterway in the Luzon Island. The Ambuklao Hydroelectric Plant is the Philippines' first hydroelectric plant.
BATH COUNTY, VIRGINA, USA
Location: VA
Operator: Dominion Virginia Power
Configuration: 6 X 350 MW FPT
Operation: 1985
T/G supplier: AC, Siemens
Quick facts: Bath County is jointly owned by Dominion (60%) and Allegheny Power (40%). It is the second largest pumped-storage power plant in the world and cost $1.7bn. The facility consists of two reservoirs, one 1,262ft higher than the other, a powerhouse, and the tunnels that connect them. At full load, as much as 14.5mn gallons per minute falls through the turbine generators.
Box Canyon, Washington State, USA
Nestled in the Selkirk Mountain Range in the northeast corner of Washington State, the Box Canyon Hydroelectric Project produces low-cost electricity from water. Box Canyon operates in a "run-of-the-river" mode, using water as it is available
The Box Canyon Hydroelectric Project is owned by the people of Pend Oreille County and operated by Pend Oreille Public Utility District. Construction of the project began in 1952 and was completed in 1956. Pend Oreille Public Utility District was the first public utility district (P.U.D.) in the state to build its own dam. There were no local, state, or federal tax dollars used in its construction. Capacity: 69MW Reservoir Length: 55 miles (89 km) Length of Dam: 160 feet (49 m) Height of Dam: 62.4 feet (19.0 m) to top of gates Head Of Water: 46 feet (14 m) maximum Type of Turbines: Kaplan Number of Turbines: 4 Type of Dam: Concrete Gravity Completion Date: 1956
America's Byways says: Box Canyon is the site of ferocious rapids that stopped explorer David Thompson's quest to find a route from Lake Pend Oreille to the Columbia River. Built in 1952, it's one of the oldest hydroelectric facilities in Washington and has provided Pend Oreille County residents with hydro-electric services for over half a century. The area's beauty is marvelous, and the dam was featured in the movie "The Postman." Recreation facilities include a scenic overlook with interpretation above the dam, campground, park, swimming area complete with waterfall and shallow children's pool, visitor center and guided tours below the dam.
American Municipal Power (AMP) - MWH
Here is an article about MWH’s AMP projects, all on the Ohio River on existing USCOE navigation dams. The client is American Municipal Power (AMP), which was Harza’s client for the similar Belleville Project.
Amir Kabir, Karaj, Iran
The initial studies for Amirkabir (or Amir Kabir) Dam took 22 years until 1956 when formal proceedings began and the dam was constructed in the period from 1957 to 1961. The ecliptic concrete structure is 180 meters (590 ft) high, with 30 meters (98 ft) length on the bottom and 390 meters (1,280 ft) on top and its watershed is 764 kilometers (475 mi) long. The average annual water inflow to its reservoir is 472 million cubic meters. The total capacity of the dam's reservoir is 202 million cubic meters. The bottom elevation of the reservoir and the normal water surface elevation of the reservoir are 1,545 meters (5,069 ft) and 1,610 meters (5,280 ft) respectively. The Amir Kabir Dam was built as a multi-purpose dam to provide tap water for Tehran alongside agricultural development in Karaj. It supplies the irrigation demand of over 50,000 hectares (120,000 acres) of farmland near Karaj. The power plant has been connected to the national electricity network for over 46 years and has a capacity of 90 megawatts. The lake behind the dam is a tourist attraction while being a natural habitat for rainbow trout. With its sailing and water-skiing facilities, the dam is a popular weekend summer resort.
See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amir_Kabir_Dam for more info.
Búrfell Hydroelectric Station, Iceland
The river Thjórsá is harnessed at Búrfell by a dam on the river which previously flowed south above Mt. Búrfell, diverting it northwards through the Sámsstadamúli mountain ridge and down into the Thjórsárdalur valley. A tunnel has been blasted for this purpose through Sámsstadamúli, which runs north from Búrfell and south from Mt. Skeljafell, and the powerhouse stands at its foot in Thjórsárdalur.
A dam 4 km above the station diverts the River Thjórsá to the west through a special ice-barrier running at right angles from the north of the dam to the west bank of the river. A surface waterway containing a sluice runs to the west and into a cirque between the mountains Búrfell, Skeljafell and Sámsstadamúli, where the water collects in a 1 km2 reservoir, Bjarnarlón, which is used to meet fluctuations in demand during the course of the day. Water is channelled from the western edge of the reservoir to a headrace tunnel which has been blasted through the basalt strata of Sámsstadamúli.
Ertan Hydropower Plant, Yalong River, China
Ertan comprises a 240m concrete arch dam and Asia's largest underground powerhouse, which is 280m long by 25.5m wide and 65m high. The project also boasts one of the world's longest diversion tunnels at 1167m. Construction began in 1991. The Ertan power plant produced 3.9 billion kilowatt hours of power in the first year of operation since August 1998, when its first generating unit went into operation. Completed at the end of 1999, it set a new record for the speed of installation of a hydroelectric project. The site is located near Panzhihua on the Yalong River (a tributary of the Yangtze) in Sichuan province. Sichuan is a mountainous inland province in the southwest of China with excellent hydro potential. Its development is a top priority for the government since the region is poor and attracting foreign investment has proved difficult compared to the successes of the booming coastal provinces. The total installed capacity is 3,300MW with an annual output of 17 billion kWh. The double curvature arch dam with height 240m ranks 3rd among similar types of this dam in the world, the scale of the underground powerhouse ranks 4th in the world. The total reservoir storage capacity is 5.8 billion cubic meters.
GURI HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANT, VENEZUELA
The Guri hydroelectric power plant is situated 100km upstream of the Caroni River in Necuima Canyon in Orinoco, Venezuela. The power plant has an installed capacity of 10,200MW and is the third-largest power plant in the world. Venezuelan power company CVG Electrification del Caroni CA (Edelca) operates and maintains the power plant.
The plant provides around 12,900GW/h of energy to the country. Construction of the power plant was carried out after the government adopted a policy in the 1960s to minimize the amount of energy produced from fossil fuels. The plant contains three high-voltage switchyards running at 800kV, 400kV and 230kV.
Mossyrock, Washington State, USA
Tacoma Power’s Mossyrock Dam, completed in 1968, stands 606 feet from bedrock and is Washington’s tallest dam. It produces enough electricity to serve more than 78,000 Northwest homes. This double-curvature concrete arch dam has three penstocks between 248 to 285 feet in length that extend down to the powerhouse, which is adjacent to the base of the dam.
The powerhouse contains two turbine generators and has room for a third. Tacoma Power has tackled the huge job of replacing both of the existing turbine generators.
2013 Pictures of Mossyrock Dam (thanks to Dave Kleiner)
Priest Rapids Dam, Washington State, USA
Taken from the west side of the Columbia River, Grant County.
Priest Rapids Dam is a hydroelectric, concrete gravity dam; located on the Columbia River, between the Yakima Firing Range and the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, and bridges Yakima County and Grant County, in the U.S. state of Washington. The dam is 24 miles south of the town of Vantage, and 47 miles northeast of the town of Richland. It is located at mile marker 397.1 from the mouth of the Columbia. It is owned by the Grant County Public Utility District. Priest Rapids, for which the dam was named, are now submerged beneath the dam's reservoir. Priest Rapids Dam is part of the Columbia River Basin system of dams.
REZA SHAH KABIR, IRAN
Arizona's Hoover Dam? No, the "Dez - Reza Shah Kabir " dam harnesses the considerable power of the Karun River in Iran's northern Khuzestan. The dam, one of the highest in the world, is an important link in Iran's growing need for electricity and a major source of irrigation in the area. Shahid Rajaee Dam
Location: Mazandaran
Rocky Mountain Pumped-Storage
Hydroelectric Plant, Georgia, USA
Location: Floyd County near Rome, GA
Type: Pumped storage hydroelectric
Units: Three
Operator: Oglethorpe Power Corp
Configuration: 3 X 283 MW FPT
Operation: 1995
T/G supplier: Hitachi, GE
OPC Ownership: 75 percent
Total MW: 1,046
OPC MW: 780
EPC: Harza, Morrison-Knudsen, Clement Bros
Quick facts: Rocky Mountain is the last major pumped-storage plant to have been built in the USA.
Seneca Pumped Storage Generating
Station, Pennsylvania, USA
The Seneca Pumped Storage Generating Station is a hydroelectric power plant using pumped storage of water to generate electric power. It is located near Warren, Pennsylvania in Warren County.
Seneca Station is colocated with the Kinzua Dam, near Warren, Pennsylvania. The dam was built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to regulate the Allegheny River as part of a larger flood control project, and, as a secondary role, to generate hydroelectric power. It created the Allegheny Reservoir, a lake that stretches 25 miles (40 km) up river.
The Seneca Pumped Storage Generating Station reservoir. Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River can be seen above. View is downriver to the west.
The power plant, rated at 435 MW, was built by the Pennsylvania Electric Company and Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company. It began commercial operation in 1970. Through business mergers and acquisitions, the plant is now owned by FirstEnergy, an operator of several base load (nuclear and coal-fired) power plants.
Pumped storage plants function similarly to a storage battery; they absorb excess power generated by such plants in off-peak hours, such as nighttime, using it to pump water into a reservoir. Later, when demand exceeds the base load, the flow of water from the reservoir generates additional electrical power to meet peak loads demands.
Wanapum Dam, Washington State, USA
Wanapum Dam is a hydroelectric project located on the Columbia River downstream (south) from Vantage, Washington where Interstate 90 crosses the Columbia from Grant County into Kittitas County. It is owned by the Grant County Public Utility District.. The dam, and its lake, are named after the Wanapum Indians. The dam has a rated capacity of 1,038,000 kilowatts.
YACYRETA , Argentina & Paraguay
Location: Corrientes
Operator: Entidad Binacional Yacyreta
Configuration: 20 X 155 MW Kaplan
Operation: 1994-1997
T/G supplier: Voith, Impsa, CGE, Siemens, Toshiba, Ansaldo, Hitachi
EPC: Harza, Impregilo
Quick facts: The Yacyreta power station is a 50:50 joint venture of Argentina and Paraguay and remains entirely state-owned despite efforts to find private investors. The EPC consortium numbered almost a dozen companies and they built 500km of 40m closure dams plus the main dam and powerhouse facilities. In Jan 2005, the owners finally agreed on the plan for boosting Yacyreta's output to full design capacity. This required raising the dam water level to 83m from the 76m level at completion and necessitated the relocation of 10,000 households, several industrial plants, a rail line, an airport, and a harbor. In Feb 2011, the water reached design level allowing full operation for the first time. The project was then declared complete after 37yrs of development and construction.