Hydroelectric Plant Visit

Our visit to the Henry Borden Hydroelectric Plant very informative. Before having gone to the plant, the only information that I knew about hydroelectricity was what we had gone over in the prior lecture, and it was very useful to see it in person to understand the technology of the system. In contrast with solar energy, hydroelectric energy technology has a much larger scale: the machinery, the energy gained, and the plant was much larger. Although I knew that the hydroelectric plant would be machinery-based operation, I was surprised to not physically see any water in the system. Going into the plant I still had ingrained in my mind the medieval turbines that were used and barely disrupted the surrounding environment instead of taking into account the productivity from these machines and the advance in technology.

The plant consisted of six hydroelectric units that were external with a horizontal axis and eight units that were underground with a vertical axis. Therefore, they could maximize the energy generated from the water flowing by having the various routes.

I thought it was very helpful to see the small scale version of the turbine before visiting the turbines used in the plant (left image below). The pressurized water jutted from the inlets into shells that turned the turbine. When they showed it with water it clarified how easy it would be to gain a lot of speed and momentum from the water flow. I also enjoyed seeing the life-sized pin and shell (right image below). Although before going to the plant I had known that it would be large, it was much easier to see the scale when comparing the scales of both demonstrations.

After seeing the exhibits, we went to the external turbines. When we walked into the room, we were able to see the turbine shells that were being fixed and inspected (first image below). It was interesting to see the layers of the shells that were out and fixed. We then saw eight of the turbines (second image below). The turbines were much more covered in their containers than I expected.

Next we went to the underground turbines, going through an underground tunnel to reach the area. The largest difference between the external and the underground turbines was the axis of rotation, which was vertical for the underground turbines (see left image) and horizontal for the external turbines. We also went into a room with the transformer that changed the energy into AC energy (right image). For each turbine, there was a room with the transformer, which was very impressive. 

I loved being able to see the full scale of the hydroelectric plant. It helped me to understand how the extremely large amount of power (900MW a day) could come from one plant. It also helped me to understand the impact that creating one of these plants would have on the environment. The area around the plant did not even look like a waterfall or path for water, the plant had taken over the entire system.