Energy Company Generates Fish-Friendly Hydro Power Power Company Hatches a Dam Clever Scheme

Energy Customer Perspective Energy Company Generates Fish-Friendly Hydro Power Power Company Hatches a Dam Clever Scheme Puget Sound Energy is a power utility supplying both electricity and natural gas to three-quarters of Washington State. Headquartered in the Puget Sound technology corridor (which includes the major metropolitan areas of Seattle and Tacoma), the company provides both natural gas and electrical energy to 1.2 million customers living in a dynamic economy that includes the Boeing Company, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, AT&T Wireless, Amazon.com, and, of course, Zetron, Inc. kW. The Lower Baker development has a 285-foot Water under the dam: high concrete dam with a generation capacity of Thanks to its rainy climate and mountainous 70,000 kW for a total project capacity of 175,000 kW. topography with plenty of rivers, Washington State is Water flowing from the southern and eastern flanks of rich in hydroelectric power. This clean, renewable, and Mount Baker forms Baker Lake and Lake Shannon low-cost power source supplies the majority of Puget behind the dams. Sound Energy’s electrical generation capacity. A full Fishy business: 65 percent is generated by hydro plants on the mid- To preserve the important fish resources of the Columbia river in the eastern half of the state. In Baker River, Puget Sound Energy installed extensive addition, many smaller hydro plants in the fish handling facilities at both dams at a cost of about northwestern cascades provide sufficient electricity to $2,285,000. Fish migrating upstream are captured by power entire cities. a fish barrier dam and trap. They are then transported A new generation of hydropower: in specially designed trucks around the dams to Located close to the border between the U.S. and spawning areas in Baker Lake. Each year an average Canada, Mount Baker is the second highest mountain of 12,000 sockeye and silver salmon, king (Chinook), in Washington state. Renowned for its great wintertime humpback (pink) and steelhead are transported by the skiing, Mount Baker’s large winter snowpack and tank trucks. glacial runoff helps keep local river levels high year- In addition, Puget Sound Energy operates three round (at least, during most years). To take advantage spawning beach facilities at the Upper Baker Dam that of this fact, Puget Sound Energy instituted the Baker allow adult sockeye salmon to spawn in an artificial River hydroelectric project. environment that closely mimics a natural stream bed. Comprised of two dams and powerhouses on the In these beaches, salmon eggs incubate in the gravel Baker River near Concrete, Washington, the project bottoms. Upon hatching, the fry are trucked back to generates low-cost electricity while at the same time the lake. providing flood control to the Lower Skagit Valley. The Making the most of manpower: Lower Baker Dam became operational in 1925; the Dick Levy is a Power Generation Serviceman Level Upper Baker Dam came on line in 1959. 6e, who works at both the Upper and Lower Baker The Upper Baker development has a 312-foot high dams: concrete dam with a generation capacity of 105,000 “There’s one full time operator who is here 24/7,” is sensed, the SentriVoice transmits voice messages explained Levy. “The rest of the crew all work out of or pages over the radio or public address system. The Lower Baker. There are only seven of us to take care Model 18 Control Link is a kind of radio switch. of the dams and powerhouse complexes at both Capable of sending and receiving on/off commands, facilities. We’re a small but pretty diverse group. My each Model 18 has 8 digital inputs and outputs. At the responsibilities are anything Upper Baker Dam, Puget Sound electrical. The rest of the crew Energy is employing two Model takes care of anything from 1516 SentriVoices and a pair of mowing lawns to digging ditches Model 18 Control Links. to running heavy equipment and “We’ve got one SentriVoice overhead cranes and repairing for the dam itself,” Lofgren equipment.” explained. “It there’s low To free the dam operator transformer oil, or if anything from the need to watch over all goes wrong in generation it will the systems every minute of the page the dam operator who will day, a number of telemetry come and take a look. There’s a systems were added to monitor second Model 1516 at our vital functions. The initial spawning beach where we attempt at this, however, had breed salmon and reintroduce some drawbacks. Technician Dick Levy poses with the two Model 18s and them to the river. An alarm “Before we used a manual Model 1516 located in the powerhouse control room panel at the spawning beach paging system and the operator senses things like water had to sit at the dam all the time in case something turbidity, water level, intrusion, power loss, and valve went wrong,” explained Jim Lofgren, Foreman for open/closed. It’s connected to a Model 18 Control Link Radio at the Puget Sound Energy Operations Center that telemeters the alarm points from the spawning in Redmond, Washington. “The alarm system was a beach up to the dam where our second Model 1516 dial-up home-type alarm which dialed into a number will page to alert the operator that something at the for an alarm service here spawning beach needs in Seattle. Upon receiving their attention.” an alarm from the dam, Off-peak power: the service would call our At the Upper Baker load office in Redmond. dam, a certain amount of The Redmond Load water seeps through the Dispatcher would then earthen sides of the West page the dam operator Pass Dike and is up at Mount Baker. By collected in Depression the time the dam Lake. At night and during operator received the off-peak hours, power page it had been handed from the generator is off several times. Plus it used to run pumps that was intermittent, and pump the water from sometimes wouldn’t get Depression Lake back through. We wanted to into the Baker Lake be able to page the dam The spawning beach. reservoir. The reliable operator directly. If operation of these pumps there’s a storm down here in Redmond, all our people is vital, so they are also monitored by the Model 1516 at the load office might be busy. Plus there’s no time SentriVoice. If a pump breaks down or fails to turn on, delay allowable at the dam when the fish are left sitting an alarm page is immediately sent to the dam high and dry because all the water’s drained off.” operator. The wireless solution: “The alarm pages repeat every few minutes,” The solution Puget Sound now relies on is a Lofgren said. “Typical messages are things like ‘West combination of two Zetron products: the Model 1516 Pass Dike trouble.’ ‘Unit number one trouble.’ SentriVoice and the Model 18 Control Link. ‘Transformer trouble.’ We are also looking at putting The Model 1516 is a wireless voice alarm reporter the information on the company RTU system so we that monitors contact inputs. When an alarm condition can bring it back down to Redmond and log the information for the various regulatory agencies.” Reprinted from Zetron's monthly newsletter, the Advantage, February 2001 Zetron, Inc. PO Box 97004, Redmond WA 98073-9704 USA Ph: (425) 820-6363 Fax: (425) 820-7031 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.zetron.com European Office: Zetron, Inc. 27-29 Campbell Court, Bramley, TADLEY, Basingstoke, RG26 5EG, UK Phone: +44 1256 880663 Fax: +44 1256 880491 Australasia Office: Zetron, Inc. PO Box 3045 Stafford Mail Centre, Stafford QLD 4053, Australia Phone: +61 7 3856 4888 Fax: +61 7 3356 6877 See Zetron price list for option pricing. Specifications subject to change without notice. Literature number: 005-7255A March 2001.

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