POWER PLANT AT THE GRAND COULEE DAM

GENERATING CAPACITY

When fully equipped the power plant at Grand Coulee will be by far the largest in existence. It will consist of two separate but similar powerhouses, one on each side of the river, each to contain, when completed, nine generators of 105,000 kilowatts capacity. The total ultimate installed generator capacity, including three 10,000-kilowatt station-service units, will be 1,920,000 kilowatts. The capacity of the 18 large generators to be used for commercial prime power and for seasonal power for pumping and other purposes will be 1,890,000 kilowatts, equivalent to 2,520,000 horsepower. The largest generators so far built are those at Boulder Dam, each rated 82,500 kilowatts.

Capacities of World's Largest Power Plants
(Horsepower ratings of turbines)

Grand Coulee	2,700,000
Boulder	1,835,000
Dnieprostroy (Russia)	746,000
Wilson (Muscle Shoals)	610,000
Conowingo	594,000
Niagara (plants in United States)	452,000

Electric shovels and belt conveyors move 25 thousand yards of pit-run sand and gravel in a day

TURBINES

Each of the 18 large generators will be driven by a 150,000-horsepower vertical hydraulic turbine, to which water will be delivered through 1 of 18 steel penstocks 18 feet in diameter, each provided with shut-off gates and trashracks.

The heads under which the turbines will operate will vary between 275 and 366 feet. At full load, water will pour through each turbine at the rate of 141 tons per second, enough passing in a day to provide 30 gallons each for nearly 100 million people. Through seven of the turbines, fully loaded, there will pass sufficient water to take care of the requirements of the entire population of the United States, at 150 gallons per person per day.

AUXILIARY POWER PLANTS

As the system of main canals is extended, it will be necessary to provide at a number of points "drops" in the canals because otherwise the gradient would produce undesirable and destructively swift currents in the canals. At a number of such points relatively small power plants will be built to utilize the energy of the falling water and generate electric power to be used in pumping water to lands above the main canals.

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