Email

Print

  Hydrokinetic News

South Carolina hydro station awaits giant turbines

The 610MW Jocassee Hydro Electric Station has been operating in Pickens County, SC, since 1973

Power company Duke Energy is to receive two new turbines for its Jocassee Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Station in South Carolina over the next few weeks.

The company is upgrading the facility near Salem, which is expected to boost capacity by 50 megawatts.

The turbines are being made by Voith Hydro, which has its manufacturing plant in York, Pennsylvania. The first is expected to arrive next week following a seven-day journey, the second in early September.

Transport engineering firm Guy M Turner, Inc., is managing the delivery of the 150-ton units, transporting them via interstate highways on 20-axle, 250-foot-long trailers.

The deliveries represent a major logistical exercise, complete with police escort. The first turbine will be parked in the town of Salem, SC, to await arrival of the second turbine, before the two machines travel together for the last part of the journey to the Jocassee station.

“Essentially, we’re improving the output of the facility and making it more efficient with state-of-the-art design technology,” said Greg Lewis, technical manager of Hydro Fleet for Duke Energy. “This extends the life of the station and helps our system respond to peak customer demands with a fast, flexible, clean and efficient energy resource.”

Upgrades

Units 1 and 2 at Jocasee have not been upgraded since they began commercial operations in 1973. Replacing the turbines is expected to see maximum capacity of each unit increased from 170MW to 195MW.

The new turbines will also increase pumping capacity by 37MW.

The Jocasee pumped storage facility is a 610-megawatt pumped-storage generating facility located in Pickens County, which works like conventional hydropower stations, except that it can also reverse its turbines to pump water back into its reservoir, ready to generate power during periods of high electricity demand.

The facility upgraded its turbine units 3 and 4 in 2006 and 2007. Upgrading units 1 and 2 is expected to take until May 2011, during which the reservoir – Lake Jocasee – will be kept at least four feet below full capacity.