Читать книгу Handbook of Large Hydro Generators - Geoff Klempner - Страница 26

The birth of commercial alternating current (AC) hydro generation dates back to June 1891 with the delivery of AC power in Colorado USA from the Ames Hydro Power Station to the Gold King Mine 4.2 km away. The generator for the power plant and the motor for the mill were identical Westinghouse synchronous single-phase machines rated 73.5 kW, 3,000 volts, 133 Hz. Later in 1891 an Oerlikon synchronous 3-phase hydro generator at 180 kW, 55 volts, 40 Hz, with transformer extended power transmission 160 km from Lauffen to Frankfurt Germany during an international electrical exhibition in Frankfurt, see Figure 1.6-1. These pioneering concepts happened more than 125 years before the writing of this book and the basic principles of the hydro electrical power system are the same today.

These very early power generation experiments were instrumental in the adoption by New York’s Niagara Falls Power Company to use this technology at their Niagara Falls Adams Hydro Station. This pioneering power plant started a rapid and continuing increase of unit ratings at these falls by operating their first of ten Westinghouse 3,677 kW, 2,000 volt, 25 Hz hydro generators in August of 1895. For all practical purposes, the great DC (Edison) versus AC (Westinghouse) duel was over. It is interesting to note that although tremendous development in generator structural, magnetic and insulating materials, and manufacturing methods has occurred over the years, the basic design elements of these electric machines have remained practically unchanged. The very earliest concept was that a synchronous generator is used to drive a synchronous motor but Tesla’s induction motor quickly replaced the synchronous motor for the vast majority of electric motor applications. However the synchronous generator remained the universal machine of choice for the large-scale generation of hydroelectric power.

Figure 1.6-1 The hydroelectric generator from Lauffen, now in the Deutches Museum, Munich.

Source: Reprinted with permission from Neidhofer [3].

Figure 1.6-2 “Growth” graph, depicting the overall increase in size over the last century, of hydro generators.

Source: Courtesy of Voith.

The world today is divided almost exclusively between utility systems generating their power at either 50 Hz or 60 Hz and these synchronous generators have continuously grown in size over the years. Today, it is now possible to see these hydro machines with terminal voltages over 20,000 volts and ratings over 900 MVA as shown in Figure 1.6-2.