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| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Share Your Thoughts
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| Readers are encouraged to share their views on issues affecting the electric power engineering profession. Send your letters to Mel Olken, editor in chief, m.olken@ieee.org. Letters may be edited for publication Memories of KeokukThe Keokuk story in the May/June 2009 issue of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine brought back many fond memories. I was a graduate student at IIT in Chicago during 1947–1949, and during summer vacations my advisors Dr. Eric T.B. Gross and Dr. William A. Lewis arranged field work at TVA's Chickamauga Dam and Keokuk Power Plant. During the Korean War, the copper price went from US$0.03 to US$0.15 per pound. I worked for a Chicago consulting firm to pump out submerged water and reopen the abandoned Oceola Copper mine located at the tip of Upper Peninsula Michigan and had a depth of 3,000 feet. The generating plant was operated at 25 cycles and 40 Hz; we had to purchase several 25 and 40–60 Hz frequency converters from Keokuk to operate the three 1,500 hp submersible pumps and mine hoists.The 96-year-old “on the river type” Keokuk power plant and dam was built by private investment, acquired by Union Electric in 1925, and is now owned and operated by Ameren UE. This project set a good example showing that a private utility company in the United States can work closely with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, performing daily analysis of weather and river conditions so long-range navigation conditions and maximum electricity could be forecast. I am pleased to learn from Warren Witt of Ameren UE that six of the exiting 15 15,000 hp runners were replaced prior to 2000, followed by replacement of the remaining nine. The last two runners (as shown on Figure 10 on page 94 of the Keokuk story) were replaced recently. The present Keokuk power plant is built in a direction parallel to the Mississippi River flow with intake at the river bed level. This did not take advantage of utilizing the kinetic energy from flowing water. Ameren UE should be encouraged to extend its generating capacity on the east side of the dam (Illinois side) by adding a new lock facility. New units built over the existing dam can then utilize the full potential of flowing water power. —Alexander A. Tseng Author's ResponseI appreciate the recent letters (Editor's note: the letter above and see also Stan Baldwin's letter in the July/August 2009 issue) regarding my History article, “The Keokuk Story” which appeared in the May/June 2009 issue of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine.I only wish that I had the opportunity to visit the Page Avenue Substation, as Stan Baldwin did, and see the Scherbius frequency changers in operation. I am fascinated by Alexander Tseng's information on the power system at Oceola copper mine. I wonder how the combination of 25 Hz and 40 Hz systems originally developed there. Also, I remember Dr. Eric T.B. Gross very well from my days at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. —Tom Blalock | |
