Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant
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The Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant, located near Ophir, Colorado, was the world's first commercial system to produce and transmit alternating current (AC) electricity. It is now on the List of IEEE Milestones.
In the summer of 1890, Westinghouse Electric (1886) supplied the station's generator and motor. They were installed in the winter, and from Spring 1891 provided alternating current electricity that was transmitted 2.6 miles to a motor-driven mill at the Gold King Mine, then at risk of shutdown from lack of timber fuel for its existing steam mill.
The generator was driven by a six-foot Pelton wheel under a 320-foot head. Its 100 horsepower Westinghouse alternator was the largest then manufactured, generating electricity at 3000 volts, 133 Hertz, single-phase AC. Voltmeters and ammeters were of both the solenoid and gravity balance types. The transmission line was built from Western Union cross-arms with insulators carrying two bare copper wires. Total wire costs were about US $700, about 1% of the cost estimated for a direct-current line. The entire plant required 15 to 20 attendants for its continuous operation.
The station was built during the "War of Currents" between Westinghouse and Thomas Edison as to whether alternating current or direct current electric power would prevail, and its success led to adoption of alternating current at much larger plants at Niagara Falls (1895) and its eventual dominance worldwide.
