Pioneer Electric Power Co. building transmission line from Odgen to Salt Lake City

THE WATER-POWER PLANT AT OGDEN, UTAH, of the Pioneer Electric Power Co. was described in detail in our issue of Nov. 8, 1894, by our special contributor, Mr. W. P. Hardesty, C. E. This extensive enterprise involves the development of about 10,000 HP. and the transmission by electricity of a considerable portion at a potential of 15,000 volts to Salt Lake City, a distance of 36 miles. The work has now proceeded so far that the company has awarded the contract to the General Electric Co. for the electrical machinery. The reservoir, dam and pipe line were described in our former article. In the tower-house will be placed five Knight water-wheels made by the Risdon Iron & Locomotive Works, of San Francisco, running at 300 revolutions per minute and controlled by Knight automatic governors. Upon each water-wheel shaft will be mounted a 24-pole, three-phase generator wound for 2,300 volts and with a periodicity of 60 cycles per second. Two Independent 100 K-W. exciter dynamos, each driven by its own water-wheel, will be placed, and the current from either will be sufficient to charge the fields of all the large machines in the station.

The current from the generators will be carried by lead-covered cables laid in ducts between the generator foundations and the wall of the building to the generator switchboards at one end of the power-house. The boards will have blue Vermont marble panels, and will be completely equipped with all the necessary controlling and regulating nutriments and apparatus. Tachometers on the switchboard, operated by synchronous motors electrically connected to the generators, will indicate the speed of the machines.

The step-up transformers and the 2,000 and 15,000 volt feeder panels will be placed in a gallery erected over the generator switchboard. The transformers, nine in number, each of 250 K-W. capacity, will raise the generator potential from 2,300 volts to 15,000 volts, at which pressure 2,000 HP, will be transmitted to Salt Lake City. The local distribution of the balance at Ogden will be made at 2,300 volts.

The transmitted current will pass over six No. 1 wires strung an insulators of a special porcelain, developed by the General Electric Co, to withstand high potentials, to nine 250 K-W, step-down transformers at Salt Lake City, which will deliver it at 2,300 volts for distribution.

The transmission line and transformers will be arranged to allow of the use of a potential of 25,000 volts. This will permit of the efficient transmission of current to the mining regions of Mercur and other camps 30 to 35 miles beyond Salt Lake City. All lines will be protected by the latest types of General Electric lightning arresters.

To construct the iron and wooden pipes bringing the water to the wheels, motors aggregating 100 HP. me set up in the shops of Rhodes Bros., in Ogden, to supply the extra power required for the work.

Salt Lake City, with the completion of the Pioneer plant, will receive power from two of the most important electrical transmission installations ever undertaken. That transmitting the power from the Big Cottonwood Canyon has only recently been completed, that of the Pioneer Co. will probably be inaugurated about Nov. 1 of this year.