The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 2, 1927, Page 8

Power and Superpower Article UL ‘Q saw in the first article that a hydro-electric station is operated by the power of a stream. A stream acquires speed and power because it is ®owing down hill. It is gravity that makes it flow. Tho steeper the grade of the river bed, the quicker the flow, and the greater the power developed. There are all kinds of streams in nature, from the slow, lazy river, hardly moving along, its level drop- ping a bare few inches in the mile, to the rapid tor- font with its swift current and a drop in level of several feet per mile; best of all the waterfall, with sn immediate drop of hundreds of feet—power ready-made for the asking. The power of the waterfall is, of course, the easi- est to utilize. The station which houses the gene fators is located just below the falls. Then all that f© necessary ig to bring the water from above the falls down thru a pipe into the station, where it will dash against the blades of the turbine wheels. In- gtead of falling over the precipice Hke the rest of the stream, the water that enters the pipe falls thru the pipe. The intake of the pipe is a short distance above the falls and sufficiently below the surface ef the river to insure that the pipe will always be full. Gince the water in the pipe falls thru the same height as if it had goue over the falls, its speed and power when it arrives at the turbines are also the game as if it had gone over the falls. After the water has passed thru the turbine pit it is of course @ischarged into the river again. The development of a wateffall for hydro-electric power is thus seen to be a comparatively simple and fmexpensive engineering task. Next to a waterfall the most advantageous power source is a rapid river with a steep “gradient’—as the drop in water level per mile length is called. Here again the situation Is largely similar to that at the waterfall. The tur- bines are located at the lower level, and the intake of the pipe is at the higher level. Of course, a place where the course of the river is straight for a long Wistance would not be a favorable location for the plant, aa the pipe might have to go back a great distance to reach a point where the river level is sufficiently above the level at the station. But @ point where the river makes a curve like a loop or a horseshoe is a very favorable spot. For the river may have to go°fifty miles around the curve while the pipe may*be/daid:across the neck of the curve & distance of perhaps only five or ten miles; yet the difference in level between the intake at the beginning and the station at the end of the curve will be considerable. In all cases except the waterfall and the type of river just described, a dam must be built. The pur- pose of the dam is to create an artificial difference in level; also to regulate the water flow. A dam is merely a stone wall built straight across the river. ft is grounded deep in the river bed and rises from twenty-five to several hundred feet above the river level; its ends are set firmly against the steep banks on either side of the river valley. The water com- img down stream and striking against the dam can- Rot get around it, under it or thru it. It must pile up behind it until the level of the accumulated water és as high as the dam. We can at once see that the backing-up of the water will flood the whole coun- tryside above the dam, creating a great reservoir. Looking upstream from the top of the dam, every- thing below that level will be under water. The difference in level between the surface of the reser- voir and the river below is available to drive the turbines, and the reservoir serves to regularize the Gow and acts as a storage system for the seasons of low water. We are now in a position to understand why some Wivers are available for hydro-electric development while others are not. We might summarize the pos- sibilities as follows: 1. All waterfalls of sufficient height and volume. 2. All locations on rivers where the very steep gradient and other conditions make power in sufficient quantities available with- Out the construction of a dam. 3. Locations on Fivers where dams can be built. As for these, only those locations can be consi- dered where the river has a sufficiently steep gradi- ent and where the river bed is of material that will sive a firm foundation for the dam. Furthermore, the river valley must not be wide at the chosen point. If it were, the dam might have to be miles fong before it could reach the hills which close in the valley on each side of the river; and the dam- med-up river would inundate a tremendous area of Yand before it would be hemmed in by the hills. Also @he hills (or river banks) must be fairly high since their height limits that of the dam, and a lower dam of course means less power. The canyons of the west for example, make possible dams hun- dreds of feet in height, while a 25-foot dam has te ®e considered acceptable on the Ohio River. Last comes an extremely important economic con- eideration: What is the nature of the land above " tthe selected spot, and can we afford to flood it? A L - location might be found excellent in every respect, but if its development would involve flooding, for example, the city of Philadelphia, it could hardly be carried out. And if the river is much used for navigation, a dam cannot be butlt without providing & lock-canal at the same time thru which the ships can get by the dam. Totaling up the potential power development of all available sites, Steinmetz fixed on 230,000,000 kilowatts as the water power resources of the U. 8. Of this huge sum only 7,000,000 kilowatts—just 8 per cent--has been developed and is in use at the present time. Water power formed only 5.2 per cent of the total power used in the U. 8, in 1924. Why has the development of water power lagged so badly? Because despite its prdmise for the fu- ture, it has until recently been unable to gain ground on its chief present competitor—steam. The strug- gle has been taking place in two parts—steam versus electricity in general, gus hydro-electric. power. ; We mentioned once before that an electric gener- ator can be driven by either a steam turbine or a water turbine. The initial investment for a hydro- electric plant is just about double the investment for a steam-electric plant of the same power. The steam electric plant requires only boilers, acces- sories and generating units to commence operation. But the hydro-electric plant involves the exceeding- ly expensive construction of the dam, the purchase iene. By N. Sparks ~cerns itself with a program for organized genera- tion of power and inter-connection, only in the dis trict roughly considered as East of Chicago and north of the Ohio—the great industrial region of the U. S. We must bear in mind that over 90 per cent of the power requirements of the country is located east of the Rock Mountains, whoreas this area po® sesses only 80 per cent of the potential water pow- er, Partly in view of this, the report recommends that 80 per cent of the power requirements be sup plied by steam-electric stations, Between the anthracite and bituminous regions a8 the basic source of the power required, the report favors thé anthracite. Economical power generation in the bituminous region would require that coke plants be built at the mines so ag to conserve all the by-products of the coal. Furthermore, the claim is made that the bituminous region does not provide sufficient water for steam condensation—tho this and steam-electric ver- ‘nay be remedied in the future by a system of reser voirs. The anthracite is considered ag the mest favorable source of power, but it is recommended that the mines be electrified, Cheap energy, however, cannot be obtained from steam alone, and the development of water power fs essential to conserve coal. The hydro-electric plants included in the Superpower scheme are divided in- to three elasses: 1. Plants depending on uniform stream flow e. g., on the Niagara and St. Lawrence (whether from the state or from the politicians who Rivers. These can be relied on for the basic pro- run it) of the water power rights, and the purchase of the territory that is to be flooded in case this is privately owned. Furthermore, the favorable hydro. electric sites are generally up in the mountains, in remote places. The material and machinery for the construction of the dam must often be brought long distances and to places which are accessible only with difficulty. Worst of all, the fact that the power sites are far from the districts where the power is going to de used, means that long transmission lines duction. 2. Plants with a variable stream flow e. g., on the Susquehanna where storage to cover the seasons of low water is impracticable. These can be developed for ag much as can be gotten from them. 3. Plants on streams that would require storage reservoirs e. g., the Connecticut, Hudson, Delaware and Potomac. These could be developed for production of the extra power required at the peak of the demand. The economies expected from inter-connection are must be built—copper wire amounting to tons, car these: it would permit the basic plants to be op ried on posts for hundreds of Miles over hills and valleys. All this must be completed before any of the power can be used. The daily and seasonal vari- erated at their full basic capacity all the time, a necessary condition for high efficiency. It would permit the development of the less favorable water ations both in the output of hydro-electric plants and power projects that could not maintain themselves in the consumption of power have acted as another, and possibly greater, hindrance to development. But now the talk is, not, of power but of“Super:, power.” The «Superpower project’ is &@ recognition of the changed economics of steam-electricity—water power. The Superpower project recognizes the wasteful- ness of the smal] individual steam power plant, the need for a great increase in electrical power, and the impossibility of haphazard hydro-electric de- velopment without an organized plan. It advocates new construction, and the inter- sible stations into one giant network of power. The engineers’ report to the government that has become known as the “Superpower Project” con- en ere) > \\ ~~ aa. 097 pee Se AORN 2 Tye ee Proletarian Odes. By C. A. MOSELEY ; IV. CALENDAR FOR YEAR NINE According to the swells’ best steer, I wish you all a Glad New Year— With just a few short reservations And now and then some explanations, The calendar, I surely hope, We'll change from that made by the Pope, And give a chance to be alive By cutting working days to five, And bring it further up to date By keeping working hours to eight, And not make minutes go so fast By speed-work for the time you last, But why bid one a Glad°New Year When new is like the old, I fear? Same system here to run the show, Same financiers to cop the dough, The same old boss with pockets deep, Same banks with gold piled in a heap, Same foreman and the same straw-bosses, Owners’ profit, workers’ losses. I think this time I'll switch the gear. Instead of wishing Glad New Year, I'll start this rhyme on some fresh page And wish you all a Glad New Age. As hint, I'll date this in conclusion, The Ninth Year of the Revolution, 4 if they had to operate alone. It would save fuel by permitting the less efficient of the steam-electric )plants to be shut down at times when the power com- . sumption is light. It would vastly increase the dis- - tribution capacity. Two technical problems stand out in the consider- ation of Superpower. One is transmission, the other is standardization. Inter-connecting lines must be capable of carrying the full power load so that if one station has to shut down, another may take fts place. Many existing transmission systems are in- connection of all pos- adequate for this requirement of Superpower. Ade- quate protective devices and selective schemes for disconnecting defective circuits are essential. These we are assured, are available. In addition to this, the unprecedented length of . the transmission lines involved in the project pre- sents new difficulties—or at least difficulties that » were negligible or easily met in the case of the shorter lines. Foremost among these is “Instability” \—the tendency of an exceedingly long line to rein- “ force any power surges that may take place in the | system, reflecting them back and forth along. the line, with more and more power and higher and higher voltage, until disaster ensues. This prob- lem is now practically solved, but great care will be necessary to see that all circuits and systems that inter-connect be designed so as to have character- istics that will insure stability. Standardization of transmission and distribution voltages and. frequencie§ is essential. In Pennsyl- vanla in 1921, 17 different D. C. voltages and 21 dif- ferent A, C. voltages were found to be in use. Such conditions make only for chaos. 93 per cent of the power in the zone covered by the report is gene- rated at the frequencies of 25 and 60 cycles. It is calculated that the adoption of 60 cycles as a stand: ard frequency would save 17% per cent of the total investment in motors and power. For main line, long-distance transmission 220,000 volts has been suggested as the standard. The economic capactty of the lines at 220,000 volts is more than double that at 150,000 volts, It is estimated that by 1930, me investment tm Superpower will be $163,000,000. The coal saved will be 19,000,000 tons per year. And the total annual savings $239,000,000. , The development of Superpower will give the wid- est possible selection of the most economical sources of energy at any time of the day or year. Power im any quantity will be available in almost any locality.. Factories need no longer be tied to their boilers. The tendency will be for industry to distribute it- self more, to spread away from the sources of fuel (the coal regions), and to locate close to its mar kets,