Ludington, MI: Pumped Water Storage

(3D Satellite)

Note the white bluffs along the lake shore. Consumer Engergy took advantage of the high ground along Lake Michigan to build an electrical power storage facility that went online in 1973. This facility pumps water up the hill at night when electricity is cheap and then runs as a hydropower plant during the day when electricity is more expensive. This has the obvious advantage of avoiding the need of building additional generation capacity to meet peak capacity needs. It is the more subtle advantage of allowing them to continue to run their heat intensive power plants such a nuclear and coal closer to capacity during the night. Solar power does not have the problem of generating electricity off hours. But wind power also needs a night-time storage sink to take advantage of night-time winds.

I learned of this facility from the following post.
Two of the eight photos added by Ben Stalvey with the comment: "Erickson Rigging in Manitowoc WI. this load came over on the SS Badger Carferry. It is a piece to the Ludington Pumped Water Storage plant."
Dennis DeBruler It is nice that the former railroad ferry can keep those loads off the interstates in the Chicagoland area.
https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../c-car-ferry...

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"The size and capacity of the Ludington pumped-storage plant's six pump-turbine and motor-generator units makes them among the largest pumped-storage units in the world. After 40 years of operation, the units needed a major overhaul" [HydroWorld]

walter elliott

walter elliott

It looks like they are running only four of the six turbines in this photo. The visible water turbulence explains why they built the various breakwaters around the outlet to manage the outflow.

ConsumerEnergy

Judging by the units (megawatts, 1.4 million consumers), they mean generating capacity, not storage capacity. 1.8 gigawatts is impressive. That means this facility can generate more electricity than a large steam-based (nuclear, coal, gas) generating station. The storage capacity is 27 billion gallons [HydroWorld]. But I don't know how to convert from gallons to watt-hours. The wind turbines in the photo indicate that these bluffs have some significant shore winds.

ConsumerEnergy

Their old license expired June 30, 2019. As part of getting a new license they obviously paid to have surveys made of the site's plants and wildlife in 2015. (However, most of the wildlife report is a copy of the plant report. I sure hope King & MacGregor Environmental, Inc. did not charge by the page.)

ConsumerEnergy

Since the equipment was about four decades old, the maintenance costs had increased. So they are doing a complete overhaul to get another 50 years of life and to improve the performance of both modes of operation: pumping and generating. Toshiba is not only manufacturing the new equipment, they have developed the new designs using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. The new runner design has nine blades instead of the previous design of six blades. They also designed improvements for the stators, stay vanes, thrust bearings, and shaft seals. [HydroWorld]

HydroWorld

HydroWorld

Historical Construction Equipment Association posted

The Ludington Pumped Storage Project

By Thomas Berry, Archivist, Historical Construction Equipment Association

Excavation for the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant on the shore of Lake Michigan just south of Ludington, Michigan, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, was one of the largest all-scraper jobs on record. The work involved removing 48,000,000 cubic yards of sandy material from a bowl 2.5 miles long and, at its maximum, 110 feet deep and a mile wide, and from the foundations for the power plant and penstocks.  

The TS-24 motor scraper, first developed by the Euclid Division of General Motors in 1957 and continued by Terex until 1986, was an impressive machine. Its rated capacity was 40 tons, or 24 cubic yards struck and 32 heaped, and it was powered by two Detroit diesels, one in the tractor and another on the scraper. As of early 1969, the engines totaled 605 flywheel horsepower, and the machine weighed 91,000 pounds empty. 

Now imagine 81 of these big scrapers massed on a single project. Joint venture excavation subcontractor Walsh-Canonie Companies selected this enormous fleet to do most of the digging and organized it into as many as 15 different spreads working simultaneously. 

Each machine carried 22 cubic yards in place, compacted, adding up to 2,222 yards per scraper per day working two ten-hour shifts. Assisted by nine single-engine S-24s of like capacity for utility work, production reached 180,000 cubic yards per day. 

Project manager Jack DeSart said, “Our choice was based on capacity in relation to production schedules, terrain characteristics, various soil conditions, grades to be negotiated, and length of haul routes.” The hauls were up to 1,500 feet each way, with grades of up to ten percent out of the basin. 

Work started in the summer of 1968, and was on schedule as of December 1970. Completion on or ahead of the October 1973, deadline was expected. 

(Information and image from Terex Product Information S-19, April 1971). 

The Historical Construction Equipment Association (HCEA) is a 501(c )3 non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the history of the construction, dredging, and surface mining equipment industries. With over 3,500 members worldwide, our activities include the operation of the National Construction Equipment Museum and archives in Bowling Green, Ohio; hosting an annual working exhibition of restored construction equipment; and publication of a quarterly magazine, Equipment Echoes, from which this text is adapted. Our next Convention is August 7-10, 2024, in Canandaigua, New York. Individual memberships are $35.00 within the USA and Canada, and $45.00 US elsewhere. We seek to develop relationships in the equipment manufacturing industry, and we offer a college scholarship for engineering students. Information is available at www.hcea.net, or by calling 419-352-5616 or e-mailing info@hcea.net.

David J Lucas: I remember delivering parts there. They built a temporary bridge over US31 for the machines to haul from one side to the other. I think they lined the inside with clay. I don’t remember how, or where the clay came from though. I think that was the biggest project Walsh/Canonie had ever done. They were based near Benton Harbor. [Another comment said the borrow pit for the clay was about two miles away.]

Brad Saxton commented on David's comment