LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
One would have to be "dammed" to see it from that perspective. :roll:480sparky said:
You May Not Believe This
- Thread starter dereckbc
- Start date
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LarryFine said:
Apparently, it takes an act of Congress to go through the place now. I have many old slide photos from when I took the tour back in the early 90s. It's just too bad a handful of fundamental religeous radicals have kept millions from enjoying what I think is an excellent peice of engineering.
To stand on the pipes that feed from the intakes to the generators and feel thousands of gallons of water rumble beneath your feet. To see the nine (I think) massive generators that were so well made back then they may never need replacing.
And to come to the realization that the whole dam is not one big, huge concrete monolith. It's full of pathways, piping, corridors, even rooms.
I asked the tour guide what the life expentancy on the dam was. He responded that the rock faces that hold the dam in place will be gone before the dam is.
And, of course, the fact that it's all about electricity.
peter d
Senior Member
- Location
- New England
480sparky said:
They don't have the guided tours anymore? What a shame....I went there in 1998 and I remember the rumbling pipes very fondly.
- Location
- Massachusetts
zbang
Senior Member
- Location
- Roughly 5346 miles from Earls Court
Being a bit of a connoisseur of dams 
:.... (and this is based on memory, too lazy to dig out the books).
Those four towers- the inner two are the penstocks and the outer two are spilllways.
There are 8 generators on one side and 9 on the other, don't know why. They were very well built, but they've also been rebuilt for higher output. They also have to replace the turbine wheels every so often. IIRC, the shafts are only about 18" dia. Also, the governors are original (as of 1999), various 3 coil motors, transformers, and hydraulics. It was kinda fun to watch the gate angle meter wobble back and forth to keep the rotation constant.
The main gen's are excited by 250vdc at 1200+ amps. Got a photo of the rating plate somewhere.
Each side has a "house power" generator, which looks absolutely TINY next to the production units. Tiny is a bit misleading- the house power gen is something like a 3' (!) Pelton wheel turbine and a 2MW generator. With a 400'+ head, that's a lot of power. The facility can black-start itself.
I did the hard-hat tour a couple of times in the late 90's. Absolutely amazing. BTW, the primary mission of the dam is flood control, not power generation. The guide said the lake would silt up enough to be a problem in maybe 500 years.
:.... (and this is based on memory, too lazy to dig out the books).Those four towers- the inner two are the penstocks and the outer two are spilllways.
There are 8 generators on one side and 9 on the other, don't know why. They were very well built, but they've also been rebuilt for higher output. They also have to replace the turbine wheels every so often. IIRC, the shafts are only about 18" dia. Also, the governors are original (as of 1999), various 3 coil motors, transformers, and hydraulics. It was kinda fun to watch the gate angle meter wobble back and forth to keep the rotation constant.
The main gen's are excited by 250vdc at 1200+ amps. Got a photo of the rating plate somewhere.
Each side has a "house power" generator, which looks absolutely TINY next to the production units. Tiny is a bit misleading- the house power gen is something like a 3' (!) Pelton wheel turbine and a 2MW generator. With a 400'+ head, that's a lot of power. The facility can black-start itself.
I did the hard-hat tour a couple of times in the late 90's. Absolutely amazing. BTW, the primary mission of the dam is flood control, not power generation. The guide said the lake would silt up enough to be a problem in maybe 500 years.
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