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10 Friday, Sept. 28, 2018
representatives from southern california edison, the east Valley water district and
the san Bernardino Valley municipal water district, cut the ribbon on the hydroelectric
turbines at east Valley water treatment plant 134.
Hydro
Continued from page 1
and replace it with more reliable and
efficient equipment, he said.
“We’re excited to have our first
hydro–generation facility,” he said.
“It has been up and down for awhile,
but we’re really, really excited to fi-
nally be generating electricity.”
The turbines have been ready for
months, but the project had to wait
until the Valley District changed the
route of a pipeline from in front of
the San Manuel Band of Mission Indi-
ans’ casino to the back. The old
pipeline was left in the ground so the
district wouldn’t need to dig up the
parking lot.
The tribe paid for the $10 million
project, which took seven months to
move 1,450 feet of the 78-inch Foothill
Pipeline.
The district has worked aggres-
sively with its energy partners to
make smart investments to reduce
costs for the district and its ratepay-
ers, Mura said.
T he TurBiNes
The turbines will generate 1 million
kilowatt hours of energy a year. The
district constructed a half a mile of
pipe through which water flows at
160 pounds per square inch of pres-
sure to turn the turbines.
Using a process called conduit hy-
droelectricity, the generation system
routes high-pressure water from
Lake Silverwood to Plant 134. As
water passes through the turbines,
the system’s induction generators
spin to create an electrical current.
This same action helps decrease
water pressure to allow for treatment
and delivery to EVWD customers.
The plant will reduce carbon diox-
ide emissions by 1.5 million pounds
and save $76,000 per year.
There is a large turbine that can be
used when water use is at its highest
in the summer and a small turbine for
the winter, explained Janice Gainey,
senior project manager for Nline En-
ergy. In times of extreme demand,
both turbines can spin.
Both were turning during the tour.
It was loud but not deafening. Rainey
almost had to shout as she showed her
guests around.
Gene Goodenough, a senior vice
president with Nline Energy, said the
rising cost of energy has made
smaller hydro-electric plants a wise
investment.
The company was founded by CEO
Matt Swindle in 2010 in El Dorado
Hills near Sacramento. The turbines
follow designs by Nikola Tesla, a pio-
Other projects
Construction was completed in
August on a hydroelectric gener-
ator at the Oliver Roemer Water
Filtration Facility at Lytle Creek,
a joint project of the Valley Dis-
trict and the West Valley Water
District. The 400-kilowatt plant
cost $4.36 million.
The plant will generate 2 mil-
lion kilowatt hours per year and
reduce carbon dioxide emission
by 3.7 million pounds per year. It
will pay for itself in 8.5 years.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony for
the project is scheduled for 9
a.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, at the Roe-
mer plant, 3010 N. Cedar Ave., Ri-
alto, said Ron Merckling, the
Valley District’s manager for
water use efficiency and external
affairs.
The $2.97 million Waterman
hydro-generating plant is the
largest of the new projects, gen-
erating 3.5 million kilowatt hours
and $386,000 of revenue per year.
It will save 6.6 million pounds of
carbon dioxide per year. It is a
joint project between the Valley
District and the city of San
Bernardino.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony is
planned in November or later but
no date is set.
neer in hydroelectric power whose
work led to the revolutionary use of
alternative current for the Mill Creek
No. 1 hydro plant in 1893. Elon Musk
named his car company after the
renowned electrical engineer.
The turbines don’t actually run the
water treatment plant, Mura said.
The electricity goes right onto the
grid and the district gets credits from
Edison. This helps Edison, which is
obligated to create renewable energy
as part of California’s goal of generat-
ing a third of its power from renew-
able sources by 2020, half by 2035 and
100 percent by 2045.
Edison’s self-generation incentive
program offers a cash incentive of 50
cents to $4.25 per watt generated by
renewable sources.
“Plant 134 has the capability of
treating up to 8 million gallons of
water per day, and this facility will
use the power of water to maximize
the benefit of this infrastructure in-
vestment,” Mura said.
a diVersiFied porTFolio
“The East Valley Water District is
really in an enviable position in terms
of our redundancy,” he said. “We’re
blessed to have our own surface
water flows out of the seven oaks dam, part of regular maintenance. The $450 million dam was built between 1993 and 2000. at 550 feet, it is the 12th tallest dam in the world.
water that we divert from the Santa
Ana River, we’re grateful the invest-
ments that Valley District made in
terms of imported water from North-
ern California.”
About three-quarters of the dis-
trict’s water supply is pumped out of
the basin.
“We’re really about protecting our
natural resources and we are depend-
ent heavily on electricity,” Mura said.
“People think that water just falls out
of the sky, and that certainly does
happen, but the challenge that we
face every day is digging to the right
spot and moving it around.”
Mura thanked the Valley District
for agreeing to let it take charge of
the Sterling Natural Resource Center
and for providing a $2.7 million low-
interest loan for the hydroelectric
plant. The crowd applauded.
“East Valley Water District is a
great partner,” said Mark Bulot, pres-
ident of the Valley District board.
“Our board and staff at Valley Dis-
trict are thrilled that past board and
staff members’ vision for renewable
energy is realized.”
h isTory
Mura described the East Valley
project as “just a drop” in the big pic-
ture of hydroelectric power in San
Bernardino County. Edison operates
33 major hydroelectric plants — 24
that generate less than 30 megawatts,
known as “small hydro.” Nine other
plants generate more.
In 2017, California’s 269 hydroelec-
tric plants generated 43,333 gigawatt-
hours providing 21 percent of the
state’s energy, according to the Cali-
fornia Energy Commission website.
Highland Community News n highlandnews.net
‘The East Valley Water Dis-
trict is really in an enviable
position in terms of our re-
dundancy. We’re blessed to
have our own surface water
that we divert from the
Santa Ana River, we’re grate-
ful the investments that Val-
ley District made in terms of
imported water from North-
ern California.’
— John Mura, general manager and
CEO of the East Valley Water District
m ill c reek N o . 1
The county has a rich history of hy-
droelectric power.
Mill Creek No. 1 was built in 1893 to
power the Union Ice Co. in Mentone
to chill oranges being shipped to the
east, said Edison researcher Daniel
W. Heinrich in an article on the
plant’s induction into the Hydro Hall
of Fame in 2002.
Henry Harbison Sinclair incorpo-
rated the Redlands Electric Light and
Power Co. in 1891. Learning that hy-
droelectric was the cheapest kind of
power, investors found a suitable
water source in Mill Creek before it
merges with the Santa Ana River.
However, that was 7.5 miles away
from the factory.
At the time, most utilities used di-
rect current electricity, which meant
their customers had to be within 5
miles of the plant. Single-phase alter-
nating current had been introduced,
but it was so new that using it to oper-
ate motors was difficult.
“Not to be discouraged, the power
company summoned an electrical en-
gineer named Almarian W. Decker to
solve these challenges,” Heinrich
writes. “He suggested using three-
phase alternating current to push
electricity from Mill Creek to Red-
lands and to provide the capability to
run large motors.”
Poly-phase systems that created a
rotating magnetic field being devel-
oped by Tesla and others were then
considered experimental. Decker’s
design was considered so revolution-
ary Westinghouse declined to build it.
So the Redlands power company ap-
proached the newly formed General
Electric Co., which built two genera-
tors to Decker’s specifications. The
two 250-kilowatt generators remained
in use until 1934.
Mill Creek No. 1 began operating on
Sept. 7, 1893, a month after Decker
h iGhlaNd c ommuNiTy N ews phoTo By J ames F olmer
Watt’s that?
n Watt: A measurement of the rate of energy
transfer, named after Scottish inventor James
Watt. Most light bulbs range from 40 to 100
watts.
n Kilowatt: 1,000 watts, enough to generate
1.34 horsepower. A one-element heater uses
1 kilowatt.
n Megawatt: 1 million watts. High-
powered electric locomotives typically have a
peak power output of 5 or 6 MW.
Gigawatt: 1 billion watts. In 2010, China con-
tracted for 28.5 gigawatts generated by wind-
mills in Germany.
Watt hertz?
n Hertz: A measurement of the cycles of elec-
tromagnetic waves. It is named after Heinrich
Rudolf Hertz. The progression of kilohertz,
megahertz and gigahertz follow the same
pattern as watts.
died. Mill Creek Nos. 2 and 3 were
added later in the same building off
Bryant Street.
Decker also designed the 120-kilo-
watt Pomona plant in the San
Bernardino Mountains, which began
to operate in 1892. It delivered elec-
tricity 14 miles to Pomona and 29
miles to San Bernardino. In 1902, the
Redlands power company merged
with Edison Electric Co., which be-
came Southern California Edison.
l oNG - disTaNce TraNsmissioN
The 3-megawatt Santa Ana River
No. 1 plant went online on Jan. 9, 1889
and was entered into the Hydro Hall
in 1999.
It used alternating current on a
grander scale than Mill Creek No. 1
with the nation’s longest-distance,
high-voltage transmission line carry-
ing alternating current, according to
HOW A TURBINE WORKS
an article by Thomas T. Taylor, a sen-
ior archaeologist with Edison. The
line ran 83 miles to an Edison Electric
substation on Second Street in Los
Angeles.
It also was the largest high-head
hydroelectric plant.
“Buoyed by the success of the Mill
Creek venture, the Redlands in-
vestors formed the Southern Califor-
nia Power Co. in 1896 to develop
hydroelectricity on the Santa Ana
River,” Taylor writes.
Water is diverted from Bear Creek
and the Santa Ana River, well up-
stream from the powerhouse at the
confluence of the Santa Ana River
and Keller Creek. It is conveyed
through flumes and tunnels to the
forebay, where it drops 735 feet
through a pressurized pipe.
The plant remained largely un-
changed until it was upgraded in the
1940s from 50 hertz, or cycles per
second, to 60 hertz to a meet a new in-
dustry standard.
It was Edison’s premier hydro facil-
ity until 1907, when the 20-megawatt
Kern River No. 1 was built using the
same three-phase alternating current
technology used at Mill Creek No. 1
and Santa Ana River No. 1.
Santa Ana River No. 2 was removed
during construction of the Seven
Oaks Dam.
ac/dc
Since Musk honored Tesla, his pop-
ularity has soared.
The website nikolateslafans.com
calls Tesla “possibly the most univer-
Friday, Sept. 28, 2018 11
G raphic N liNe e NerGy
By
sally loved Serbian in the history of
Serbians.”
The site leads with a story with a
headline, “Why Nikola Tesla was a
better inventor than Edison.”
Tesla moved to the United States in
1884 and soon went to
work for Thomas Alva
Edison. Reportedly,
Edison offered Tesla
$50,000 to improve his
direct current system.
wordpress . com After Telsa presented
an improved design,
Nikola Tesla
Edison said he was jok-
1856-1943
ing about the bonus,
the website says. Tesla quit.
Tesla then founded the Tesla Elec-
tric Light Co. and patented his arc
lighting system using alternative cur-
rent. Investors skeptical of alterna-
tive current withdrew their funding,
leaving Tesla broke, the website says.
He sold his patents for stock.
Besides his innovations with alter-
nating current, Tesla is credited with
inventing fluorescent tubes — prede-
cessors of neon lights. Tesla formu-
lated the principles of radar
(Radio Detection And Ranging) in
1917, although the first radar unit
wasn’t built until 1934.
Although Italian inventor
Guglielmo Marconi is often credited
with inventing the radio, Tesla cre-
ated the process around 1900, the
website says. The U.S. Supreme Court
rejected Marconi’s patent on the
radio after it was proven that it was
initially invented by Tesla.
Tesla died bankrupt and penniless.