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| Solomon Gulch Power Plant |
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| Valdez |
| 2 ea 6 MW. |
| Hydroelectric plants have journal-bearing temperature prominently displayed. I asked why. The operator said sometimes sticks come down and jam a wicket-gate (hydraulically operated speed control fin). The individual wicket gates have shear-pins for the event of a jam. Remaining gates can govern speed in the usual manner. But the lame gate causes side-loading of the main-berrings. Bearing-temp-rise tips an operator off to fix jammed wicket-gates. |
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| Glacier-fed, the plant runs 8-9 Mo./Yr. |
| I asked about something I'd seen in a 30 KW Onan I owned long ago. It was either a cross-current compensation control or a line-drop compensation adjustment. Set up for paralelling, the sense current transformer was called a "droop coil" on the schematic. He said he didn't know my particulars. But he runs one generator at full power, the other responds to varying demand: he calls that his "droop unit." He said for some reason, the two identical generators won't track. Eklutna's track fine. It's a good riddle! I wonder why? |
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| Solomon Gulch |