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ALOUETTE—The Largest Automatic Poiuer Plant in Canada

The ALOUETTE POWER DEVELOPMENT Completed i(?28

British Columbia Electric Railway Co. <&*- -\NZ)

/^G1HE Alouette power development of the British I *j Columbia Electric Railway Company, completed in 1928, is situated on Alouette and Stave lakes, some 35 miles east of Vancouver. The power plant is on the shore of Stave lake, ten and a half miles north of the Stave Falls power plant. Although of only 12,500 horse­ power, interest lies in its being completely automatic, there being no operator in attendance at any time. Briefly, the Alouette development consists of a dam, a tunnel and a power house. The dam was built across the mouth of Alouette lake, raising the water level 45

feet. Actually there were two lakes at low water, but by ALOUETTE > the deepening of the connecting channel, there is now POWER PLANT one body of water. The northerly end of Alouette lake approaches within 3,600 feet of Stave lake, at which STAVE RIVER ELEv2foF point a tunnel was driven, through which the water flows At the same time it was decided to augment this STAVE FALLS to the power house. A fall of 140 feet between the two development by including the water supply of Alouette POWER PLANT lakes makes possible the generation of electric power. lake, drawn through a tunnel connecting Stave and As ultimately proceeded with, the Alouette develop­ Alouette lakes. The first major item in the Alouette connected generator. All other functions, of which there ment was vastly different from that which was originally scheme was the tunnel, which was completed on May 27, are many, are taken care of by automatic devices. Even planned. The first project was to build a flume down the 1925. In September the same year, the enlarged Stave mishaps, such as heated bearings, breaks in the high „ Alouette river to a point where the maximum fall of Falls power plant, with five 15,000 horsepower turbines, tension lines, lightning, and so forth, are all guarded water could be obtained and there to build the power was formally opened. against by the automatic apparatus. house. At that time, the Stave Falls power development Having provided an outlet for the water of Alouette To the uninitiated there might seem to be nothing to was owned by the Western Canada Power Company, lake, the company proceeded with the building of a dam starting up a turbine but admitting water into it; but a afterwards the Western Power Company of Canada, while across the mouth of Alouette lake. Begun in October, great force, equal to 12,500 horsepower, cannot be turned the Alouette project was held by the B.C. Electric Railway 1925, it was completed in February, 1926, at a cost of on as you would a garden tap. What happens in Alouette Company. The Alouette scheme as first outlined was $500,000. It is 1,000 feet long and raises the level of the plant is this: never proceeded with because of its cost and the avail­ water in Alouette lake 45 feet. The operator at Stave Falls closes a switch, thus ability of other water powers. But it was always a dream The last item was the erection of the power house sending current over the high tension line to the Alouette that a much more efficient utilization of the potential and the installation of the machinery. The high tension plant. This puts a number of relays and other devices power in Alouette lake would be through Stave lake, a line from Stave Falls had already been built at the time into action, each of which has its own particular work dream that became a possibility when the Western Power of the driving of the tunnel. to do. One slightly opens the main valve, admitting water Company was acquired by the B.C. Electric in 1920. The turbine and generator of the Alouette plant were to the turbine, and then pauses until full water pressure Following that event, the growth of Vancouver and supplied by the English Electric Company, which sent is built up in the turbine, upon which it continues till the the lower mainland began to call for more electric power. an engineer from London to supervise the installation of valve is fully open. Another starts the lubricating oil The Stave Falls power plant had provision for a fourth this machinery. They are of the vertical shaft type, the pumps working. Others put the governor into operation, unit, which was completed in November, 1922. Looking turbine operating under head of from 124 feet at low and it takes control of the turbine gate opening. The to the future, the company chose to follow the original water to 154 feet at high water. gates gradually open and the generator begins to revolve. plans for the Stave Falls plant and began work on raising Probably the most interesting part of the whole Many other operations follow, too technical to go into the dams at that point, thus impounding a vastly greater scheme is the automatic feature of this plant. The throw­ here. After the generator is in motion, it must be "syn­ volume of water and making possible the installation of ing of a switch on the 60,000 volt line at the Stave Falls chronized" with the rest of the system, a delicate operation further turbine and generator capacity. plant will automatically start or stop the turbine and its which even the automatic apparatus performs correctly. C^i- "^sasaDP- •N5 S^>- -'N5

Alouette has a capacity of 57,400,000 kilowatt hours a year, while Stave Falls provides for 250,000,000 kilowatt hours and Lake Buntzen 146,000,000 kilowatt hours. Expressed in terms of water stored, there is a capacity behind the Stave and Alouette dams of 540,000 acre feet, which is sufficient to cover an area of 800 square miles a foot deep. With the ordinary precipitation, there is sufficient water to permit 4,200 cubic feet a second to pass through the Stave Falls power house continuously. Compare this with a city water system and the amount of storage necessary for a power plant can be realized. A city of 1,000,000 people is estimated to require 80,000,000 gallons a day. This is roughly 150 cubic feet a second. In other words, there is enough water stored in Stave and Alouette lakes to provide water supply for nearly 30,000,000 people.

Perfected as power plants are today, accidents will happen, and protecting the plant and the system from these mishaps is another function of the automatic devices. For example, if the governor oil pressure drops, if the lubricating oil supply fails, if bearings, alternator windings or transformer windings heat up unduly, if the governor driving belt breaks, if overspeed develops or if a sustained overload occurs—if all these and many other things happen, the station will automatically shut down. Under certain conditions, the plant will automatically start up again after matters reach normal, but in other cases the plant will not start until inspection is made and the abnormal condition rectified. It can readily be seen that if a high tension line comes down, if a penstock should burst and pressure on the turbine drop, considerable damage might be done to the plant unless the generator were shut off. Such cases are all prepared for. The Alouette plant is one of the largest automatic power plants in existence. It is the fourth hydro-electric plant in the mainland system of the B.C. Electric Railway Company and the sixth in the Company's entire system. It brings the total power capacity of the Company's plants up to 211,366 horsepower. It cost $2,500,000.