Ludington Pumped Storage Power Plant
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The Ludington Pumped Storage Plant is a pumped storage power station with an elevated reservoir in Ludington, Michigan, USA. It was built in 1969-1973 at an estimated cost of $ 315 million, is jointly owned by Consumers Energy and Detroit Edison and operated by Consumers Energy. At the time of completion it was the largest pumped storage power plant on earth. Today it is after which is also located in the United States Bath County Pumped Storage Station pumped storage power plant with the world's second largest power.
Specifications
It consists of a reservoir, which is 34 m deep, 4 km long and 1.6 km wide and holds 100 million cubic meters of water. The length of the ring dam is 9600 m. The 3.3 km ² reservoir is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. Because of impermeable rock 240 m is only available under the basin, the builders had to the reservoir with layers of asphalt and clay seal to seep to prevent the water from.
The power plant consists of six reversible turbines that can generate each 312 MW of electrical power, which together are 1,872 MW. The water is led from the upper reservoir through six pressure lines, each of 330 m in length and tapering in diameter from 8.5 m to 7.3 m to the turbines. The plan is an expansion to 2172 MW. The six turbines are to be replaced by more powerful by 2019, each turbine is to make 50 MW more.
At night, during low demand for electricity, the turbines run in reverse to pump water from Lake Michigan 110 m high in the reservoir. The power plant utilizes the natural steep sand formation of the eastern shore of the lake. During times of peak demand, water is released to produce electricity. Electricity generation can begin within two minutes, with the maximum output of 1,872 MW in less than 30 min is achieved. The maximum water flow is more than 2080 m³ / s
This process helps to cover peaks in demand in the grid, which may be not covered by the coal-fired power plants that run in the base load as fast. He also replaced gas power plants for this peak demand. The Ludington pumped storage power plant is about three 345- kV high- voltage transmission lines connected to the network, all of the Michigan Electric Transmission Company ( METC ), are a subsidiary of ITC Holdings.
Award
1973 won a prize for " outstanding achievements in civil engineering " the project of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Extension
Consumers Energy has plans to expand the plant and increase the capacity of the pumps by up to 9 %. Consumers Energy also plans to use wind energy along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan with wind turbines. Because the wind acts irregular and large amounts of energy at times supplies where they are not needed, it is desirable to have pumped storage facilities in the vicinity of wind farms. The available pump capacity is limited partly the maximum contribution it can make to the wind power to the energy supply of a region.