Show the bear river 0 electric plant written for the mining review by 0 H gray EE during the past year the utah sugar company has shown its enterprising spirit not only by extending the sugar industry but also by the development of the hitherto unused water power of the bear river at a point four miles north off of collinston collingston Col linston utah the hydraulic development at the bear river canyon is unique and interesting in that it combines a large irrigating canal system with an electric power plant plan t irrigation is the chief aim electricity a byproduct the development of electric power will not lessen the quantity of water available for irrigation because only the AS 4 i 0 I 1 X ww flat aw itz t ac 17 r 1 az e N it va i 4 xa SIPHON AND POWER HOUSE LOOKING EAST surplus water will be used for the former purpose the canals which conduct the water wate rout out to the farms in the bear river valley can carry the entire flow of the river only during the period of extreme low water which lasts but a few weeks in august and september throughout the rest crest of the year there is water iri in excess of the full capacity of the canals or of the demands of the iri gators and this surplus is now used for driving electric generators ten years ago there would have been no market for this power so far distant from froin any center of population but now that we know how to handle a pressure of volts bear river power is being delivered atsatt at salt lake city I 1 over eighty two miles of pole line with a loss joss of only 10 or 12 per cent af arjust just the time of year when this power from the surplus waters of bear river is available it is most needed in salt lake city to meet the increased demand for light and power which accompanies the long winter evenings and the holiday season the original hydraulic development at bear river was made about twenty years ago and consists of a dam at the upper end of the bear river canyon which diverts the water into a canal on each side of the rocky gorge down which the river plunges for two miles these canals pass through tunnels or flumes blumes and alongside of masonry retaining walls until they emerge from the canyon about a thousand feet apart and one hundred and fifteen feet above the river it is just at this point that the electric plant is located an inverted siphon eight feet inside diameter built of california fornia ared red wood leads from the west canal through a concrete turnout carefully designed to prevent loss of head from water eddies past a screen and head gate down the west slope across the river on a three span steel bridge up the east slope and into the east canal through L an arrangement similar to that on the west side from the lowest portion of this eight foot pipe two steel penstocks pen stocks sixty six inches in diameter lead off to the power house by this arrangement it is possible for the beiver power house to draw water from either canal or during the irrigation season if either canal should break through a retaining in wall in the canyon as they sometimes do the portion of the canal below the canyon can be supplied from the other canal through the eight foot siphon and thus preserve the crops in the valley until the damaged canal is repaired repaired the bottoms of the two canals are on the same level but it is estimated that a difference of head of one foot will produce a flow through the big pipe of about cubic feet per second thus if the west canal be filled to a depth of six feet and the water in the east canal stand at a depth of five feet there should be just enough water passed through the siphon to supply all the water which the east canal will carry at five feet depth the electric power house is a substantial brick building feet long by sixty feet wide having concrete foundation walls carried down to bed rock the room is made of standing seam tin roofing on inch roof boards nailed to inch supported by timber roof trusses forty feet of the width 0 of the building and the entire length is swept by a twenty ton crane which is mounted on two runways one on a ledge of the north building wall the other supported by steel columns twenty feet apart the building has no basement except under the switch board all wires generator leads and cables are carried under the cement floor in clay conduits each of the two 06 66 inch steel penstocks pen stocks is connected inside the power house to a 1400 horsepower double discharge leffel tur binet which is connected by a rigid shaft coupling to a k w westinghouse revolving field type alternator the turbines are equipped with type B lombard governors and also a lever for hand regulation each of the sixty six inch inlet pipes is brov provided aided with a rensselaer Renn selaer gate valve located just inside the power house so as to be in reach of the 20 ton crane these valves are among the largest ever made weighing weighing seventeen tons each they are operated by belting from a shaft driven by a motor the direct current exciter generators are separately driven by small leffel turbines water for which is brought in a 24 inch pipe directly from the large siphon pipe this makes the exciters excite rs independent of the large units giving better regulation and greater reliability the water after passing through the two 1400 horsepower turbines is discharged through four draft tubes each leading with a long 90 degree bend to a flaring concrete tunnel under the power house floor these tunnels all terminate in a common tail race and are so proportioned that thab the water is brought almost to rest before being discharged so that as much as possible of its energy is utilized electric current comes from the generators at 2300 volts to the nine panel marble switch board on which are mounted the necessary oil switches and indicating and recording d instruments n s trum ent s prom from the swit switchboard c h a three phase three wire circuit conveys the current to three step up transformers which raise the voltage to volts these transformers are ten feet apart and each is exactly opposite one of the ten tell windows in the side of the power house after coming I 1 from the high tension side of its transformer each wire of the three phase circuit passes without lateral deviation successively to a static interrupter a high tension switch of special design a low equivalent lightening arrester and finally out of the window through gli a long glass bushing which is held by passing through holes in two sheets of heavy plate glass six inches apart which form the transom of the window the transmission line skirts the base of the wasatch mountains keeping for the most part above the cultivated farms it a short arm bolted 16 to the pole nine inches fro from m the top toli the top insulator is mounted on the left side of the first pole the right side of the next and so on alternately this arrangement is much better mechanically than the plant of inserting a pin in the top of the pole it also has the advantage that in case a top ton insulator breaks the wire drops onto the cross arm and against the pole instead of dropping across one of the other two wires and causing a short circuit it has been the aim on the bear river pole line to have everything strong and rigid to use iron cross arm braces steel pins bolts and guys wherever needed to give mechanical strength the large porcelain insulators being reli relied edon on entirely for insulation A telephone circuit consisting of a pair of no 9 BB iron wires is carried on the same poles noles on a short cross arm nine feet below the high tension wires the telephone line is transposed every half mile an va 1 jr 7 T lk aw 0 41 1 kr EAST INTAKE TO SIPHON PIPE LOOKING WEST consists of three no 0 soft drawn copper wires spaced to form an equilateral triangle six feet on a side carried on 40 foot poles feet apart adart the wires are insulated from the poles by locke porcelain insulat insulators drs made in three pieces and afterward cemented together every insulator was tested at the factory witha with a pressure of volts before being accepted these insulators are ten inches high eleven inches in diameter and weigh over twenty pounds apiece they are mounted on cast iron pins having steel gores cores which project out below and are threaded to receive nuts for bolting them securely to the cross arms two of the insulators sula tors on each pole are carried by a seven beven foot cross arm five feet nine inches below the top of the pole and the third by and gives perfectly quiet service although there is an induced voltage between either side and ground enough to light fight an incandescent lamp for the use and convenience of the men patrolling the line telephones are connected at intervals along the route as well as at the power house and receiving station they are located in booths so insulated as to protect the user from danger of an accidental cross between high tension and telephone wires in case of a break down the concrete work and power house were built under the direct superintendence of mr J C wheelon superintendent of the canal system the entire plant was de signed and supervised by hayward gray consulting engineers the sugar company has contracted to sell the entire output of the bear river plant nearly horsepower to the utah light railway company |