Ninety-Sixth Street Station

Allgemeines

FirmennameNinety-Sixth Street Station
OrtssitzNew York (N.Y.)
OrtsteilManhattan
Straße96th Street
Art des UnternehmensElektrizitätswerk
AnmerkungenGelegen am East River. Erbaut bei Umstellung des Pferde- und Kabelbahnverkehrs der "Metropolitan Street Railway Company". Für die Bahnen mit unterirdischer Stromzuführung gab es schon vorher ein Kraftwerk. Das Gebäude hat einen trapezförmigen Grundriß, mit 11 Dampfmaschinen und 80 Wasserrohrkessel in Zweiergruppen auf drei Stockwerken des Kesselhauses. Der höchste Verbrauch an einem Weihnachtstag betrug 575.000 kWh, dafür 718 t Kohlenverbrauch. Die Anlage kann im Störungsfalle als drei getrennte Werke betrieben werden.
Quellenangabenhttp://www.ieeeghn.org [Schimpff: Straßenbahnen in den Verein. Staaten (1903) 134] [New York electr. handbook (1904) 140]
Hinweise[New York electr. handbook (1904) 139]: Außenansicht; 140: Grundriß; 142: Querschnitt Maschinenraum, 144: Querschnitt Kesselhaus




Unternehmensgeschichte

Zeit Ereignis
1897 Beginn der Fundamentierungsarbeiten
08.1899 Die erste Maschine geht in Betrieb
1915 Einstellung der Stromerzeugung nach der Umwandlung der "Metropolitan Company" in "New York Railways", die den Strom von der "Interborough Rapid Transit Company" (IRT) bezieht




Produkte

Produkt ab Bem. bis Bem. Kommentar
Bahnstrom 1899 Beginn 1915 Ende 25 Hz, 6600 V




Betriebene Dampfmaschinen

Bezeichnung Bauzeit Hersteller
Dampfmaschinen 1899/1900 Edw. P. Allis & Co., Reliance Works




Firmen-Änderungen, Zusammenschüsse, Teilungen, Beteiligungen


Zeit = 1: Zeitpunkt unbekannt

Zeit Bezug Abfolge andere Firma Kommentar
1899 Nebenwerk zuvor Metropolitan Street Railway Company seit 1899 i.B.




Allgemeines

ZEIT1904
THEMABeschreibung
TEXTThe 96th Street Power Station of the Company was the first of the several large polyphase power generating stations to be erected and operated in the City of New York. The station contains eleven 3,500 kW generating units. The current generated is three-phase, 25 cycle, 6.600 volts, and is distributed at that pressure to seven substations on the Island of Manhattan. The electric generators are driven by vertical cross-compound condensing engines directly connected to the generators. Surface condensers are used for each engine, and all station auxiliaries are steam driven. Steam is furnished to the engines by eighty boilers of the inclined water tube type. These boilers are arranged on the first, second and third floors of the boiler house. They are set in batteries of two, each battery
being rated at 500 H.P. nominal. The coal is taken from the boats by steam shovel and automatic conveyors to the coal bunkers, which are located just under the roof of the boiler house, and which have a capacity of 9,000 tons. From the bunkers the coal descends by gravity to the automatic stokers, with which all the boilers are equipped, and by them is fed directly to the fires. The output of this station has been in times of heaviest load - which occurs about Christmas - as high as 575.000 kilowatt hours per day. The output during the maximum hour of the day has frequently gone as high as 36.000 kilowatts, or about the nominal load for the eleven generating units. A typical load curve of this power station is shown in the cut. The load factor of the station, of course, varies somewhat with the season of the year, varying from sixty per cent, to sixty-six per cent. The coal consumption at this power station is about two and eight-tenths pounds of coal per kilowatt. The coal consumption for the maximum output above mentioned would, therefore, be about 718 tons per day. The total output of the station for the year ending December
31 last amounted to over 149.000.000 kWh. In order to ensure continuity of operation, and to provide as far as possible against interruption due to disabling of any piece of apparatus, the station is arranged so that it can be operated as three independent stations if desired. It has not been found necessary to make this subdivision, however, and the station has thus far been operated as one unit. In the last four years of operation there have been but two interruptions to the steady delivery of electric current from this power station, and in both of these instances the trouble was due to causes outside of the power station itself. A reference to the several cuts of this power station shows how very compact is the arrangement of the machinery. As a matter of fact, the ground space required per k.w. of capacity in the 96th Street Power House is 1.24 sq.ft. for boiler and engine rooms together. Of this 0,68 sq.ft. is in the engine rooms, and 0,56 sq.ft. in the boiler room.
In the 96th Street Power Station, as well as the Kingsbridge Power Station, the arrangement of the apparatus is such that they are practically several power stations under one roof. This subdivision holds from boiler room to switchboard. While the separation of the various groups of apparatus in the power house may be complete, if necessary, in ordinary operation all are connected together. In these two power houses the Railway Company
has ample power provision for any possible requirements for several years to come. The mechanical force in the power stations is directly in charge of the Mechanical Engineer of the Company, and the electrical force is in charge of the Electrical Engineer; both of whom report to the Chief Engineer of the Company. Each power station has a First, Second and Third Assistant Engineer, who stand watches of eight hours each, and are in direct charge of the operation of the power house during the eight hours. Under them are watch engineers, oilers, pump men, stokers, coal passers, water tenders, and so on; all working in eight-hour shifts. The high tension feeders laid from the power stations to the substations are arranged in groups so that no substation is dependent upon current from any one
feeder, as there are always several feeders connecting each substation with the power house. These feeders take different routes through the streets and, entering the power house from different directions, terminate in different sections of the feeder board. This subdivision of the power station, and the feeders therefrom, provides all the practical advantages of several separate power stations. Any mechanical or electrical trouble with any of the power-house apparatus can hardly extend further than the group in which it originates, except temporarily.
The possibility of fire is practically eliminated by the fireproof construction employed throughout the power
stations. The coal used at these power stations is partly anthracite, buckwheat size, approximately 12.000 B.T.U.'s
per lb., and partly semi-bituminous coal having a heating value of 14.500 B.T.U.'s per lb. The average amount of water evaporated per pound of coal throughout the twenty-four hours, as measured by water meters, is about eight and one-half pounds. Water required per kWh at the switchboard is about twenty-two pounds, including all the auxiliaries about the power station. The cost of coal is sixty-seven per cent, the cost of repairs to power plant is seven and six-tenths per cent, and the cost of labor is nineteen per cent, of the total operating and maintenance cost; while the yearly cost of repairs is about one and sixty-one-one hundredths per cent, of the first cost of the plant.
The location of both these power stations on the river front is such that coal is delivered to them directly by
boats ensuring a proper supply of fuel at the lowest possible cost for handling, and ample water is available for
condensing purposes. The substations throughout the city have been located on property owned by the Company. In most instances the substation building is part of a car house. It so happens that the property owned by the Company is so
situated that the substations are not far removed from their theoretically proper positions. The electrical conductors in the conduit are divided into sections isolated from each other so that difficulties in the way of electrical grounds, etc. are confined to the section in which they occur. These sections average, approximately, one-half mile lengths, and each has its own set of feeders leading directly to it from the substation. This localizes trouble on the lines and facilitates quick repairs. Switches are provided - located in suitable boxes in
manholes - at the points of division of various sections, so that in case feeder trouble should temporarily disable traffic on one section, power can be quickly furnished to the disabled section by connecting it through the switch to the adjacent section. It has been found that this provision against power failure is so effective that delays of more than four or five minutes to cars through feeder troubles are quite rare. The electrical troubles met with in operating this system can be roughly grouped under three heads: Troubles with feeders between substations and conductor bars ; troubles with the conductor bars themselves, and troubles with electrical equipment of cars. Nine-tenths of the feeder troubles occur at the manholes and are due to some mechanical injury to the feeders by men while working in the manholes, or by men working in other excavations alongside the company's duct line. It sometimes happens that in manholes containing a great many feeders a feeder low down in the rack may short-circuit or ground to the lead cover, from some cause or other, and burn not only itself, but other feeders above it until
every feeder in the manhole is more or less damaged; the attendant at the substation meanwhile knowing nothing of all this until advised from the outside by the Inspector. Troubles with conductor bars come mainly from
three causes:
1st. Short-circuiting of plows or current collectors carried by the car. When this occurs the conductor rails are burned and buckle from the heat developed by the burning plow. Such rails must be removed and
new ones put in their places.
2nd. Troubles due to accumulations of snow or ice in the conduit.
3rd. Troubles caused by boys putting metallic articles, wire, chain, etc., through the slot and thereby short-circuiting the conductor bars.
The methods of prevention of troubles from the last two-named sources are obvious. The trouble from the first cause can never be entirely prevented, but only mitigated. For the proper care of the feeders and electric conductors in the conduit the city is divided into eight sections, and all the cable and electric conductors in each section are in the charge of a section foreman who has a force of men under his control and who is responsible directly to the Superintendent of Lines and Feeders for the condition of the electric cables and conductor bars in his section, and for the proper handling of his men. The Superintendent of Lines and Feeders reports directly to the Electrical Engineer.
QUELLE[New York electr. handbook (1904) 140]