Imperial Valley Press

POWER PLANT SYSTEM HAS THREE UNITS

The proposed initial development of the Imperial Irrigation District power program as considered in the report filed by Lester S. Ready, consulting engineer, with the railroad commission following a hearing here recently, comprises two hydroelectric plants and a Diesel plant. The two hydro plants will be located on the All American canal and the Diesel plant in Brawley.

On the canal route, the Pilot Knob plant will have a capacity of 17,250 kilowatts and plant No. 3, a capacity of 18,000 kilowatts while the Brawley plant will be of 15,000 kilowatts capacity. This Brawley plant is to be operated as the main source of power during the local development period until the completion of the All American canal after which it will be used as a standby and auxiliary to the hydro plants when they are placed in operation.

This project, the report states, will be capable of supplying a utility load of 124,000,000 kilowatt hours annually and a combined district pumping load and utility load of 200,000,000 kilowatt hours a year. A double-circuit 110 Kv steel tower transmission line from Pilot Knob via Imperial Valley to Coachella Valley, with main transmission substations at Brawley and Coachella; a 33 Kv secondary transmission network in Imperial Valley, comprising 97 miles of lines, together with substations and a general distribution system operating at 11,000 volts and 6.6 Kv in rural territory, with possibly 4 Kv in urban districts, generally constitutes the proposed system.

This report, which follows out the plans of the power program sponsored by the Imperial Irrigation District board of directors for the development and distribution of All American canal power, states that service is contemplated to be made available to all the territory now supplied by the Southern Sierras Power company and to the major area in Imperial Valley not now served.