old power plant
NW Mailing List
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Fri Apr 8 11:02:09 EDT 2016
On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 8:59 PM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
wrote:
> If you use the satellite view of this location you will see a substation.
> One of those buildings served as the control room for the old power plant.
> I have no further information on when the plant existed, nor when it was
> demolished.
If you go to this site: http://historicalmaps.arcgis.com/usgs/ -- USGS
Historical Topographic Map Explorer, you can view topo maps of the area
over the years. Search on Sprigg to get in the vicinity, then you can click
on the map to see what historical maps are available (not much between 1928
and the '50s). The 1928 Matewan map shows a branch that wraps around the
horseshoe bend of the river from the N&W main at Sprigg, to serve a number
of mines (with tramways) along the river. The substation doesn't show as
such at that time, but there is the same collection of power lines, labeled
Appalachian Power.
However, Google is your friend. Plugging in "Appalachian Power Sprigg"
returned a perfect hit out of what was returned -- an article from *Electrical
World* on July 22, 1916, that identified the plant as being operated by the
Tug River Power Company. Searching on "Tug River Power Company Sprigg"
turned up the article below in *The Black Diamond*, which shows the company
was purchased by the Kentucky & West Virginia Power Company, Inc.
That should be something to get started on tracking down more details of
the plant.
Bruce in Blacksburg
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Using Electric Power For Mining Coal
Kentucky and West Virginia Power Company's Modern Plant Serves The Logan
Field. Central Power Plant Being Enlarged
POWER is supplied to practically all the coal mines in the Logan district
and to most of those in Mingo county, West Virginia, and Pike and Perry
counties, Kentucky by the Kentucky & West Virginia Power Company, Inc. This
concern was organized in July, 1919, and purchased the 3750 K. V. A. plant
of the Kentucky River Power Co at Hazard, Ky., and the 7600 K. V. A. plant
of the Tug River Electric Company at Sprigg, West Va.
*The Black Diamond*, April 24, 1920, Pg. 462,
https://books.google.com/books?id=GqpEAQAAMAAJ&lpg=PA462&ots=1TyUjmAxMJ&dq=Tug%20River%20Power%20Company%20Sprigg&pg=PA462#v=onepage&q=Tug%20River%20Power%20Company%20Sprigg&f=false
-------------
SELLING SERVICE TO MINES
Increasing the Use of Electric Drive by Central Station Power in the
Appalachian Coal Fields
BY WIGHTMAN D. ROBERTS
One of the newest and potentially greatest zones of industrial activity in
the United States is that composed of the coal-bearing counties of West
Virginia, southwest Virginia and eastern Kentucky, and in these counties
the use of electricity from central stations in coal mining is increasing
at a rapid rate.
At present more than 1500 coal mines are being worked in the states named.
The approximate annual production of coal in the region is as follows:
West Virginia 70,000,000 tons
Virginia 8,000,000 tons
Kentucky 14,000,000 tons*
----
*Does not include Western Kentucky fields.
The available coal resources of these states--that is coal unmined--are
estimated by the United States Geological Survey and the different state
mining departments as follows:
West Virginia 150,000,000,000 tons
Virginia 25,000,000,000 tons
Kentucky 45,000,000,000 tons
POWER SYSTEMS SUPPLYING COAL MINES
In the northern mining counties of West Virginia the Consolidation Coal
Company has a central station which supplies electricity to some thirty of
its plants. The Davis Coal & Coke Company also operates its twenty-four
mines electrically from its own station.
In the central or Kanawha-New River mining districts of West Virginia, the
Virginian Power Company supplies power to about seventy-five mining
companies, each operating from one to eighteen mines from its central
station at Cabin Creek Junction on the Kanawha River. This steam plant
contains at present two units of 10,000 kw. each, but with provision made
for two additional units of 20,000 kw. The company at present is operating
about 300 miles of transmission line, of which at least 200 miles at
44,000 volts is in mine service.
In the southern counties of West Virginia there are three central station
systems: The Appalachian Power Company, with headquarters at Bluefield; the
Logan County Light & Power Company, at Logan in the Guyan Valley coal
field, and the Tug River Power Company, whose plant is at Sprigg, in the
Thacker coal field.
The Appalachian Power Company has water-power developments on New River in
the southern part of Virginia, where there now is installed 29,000 hp.,
with future developments for 60,000 hp additional. It also maintains
reserve steam plants at Roanoke, Va., Bluefield, Switchback and Welch, W.
Va., with a combined capacity of over 10,000 kw. Power from these is
transmitted to the coal fields of West Virginia and in some of the Virginia
mining counties over two separate transmission lines at 88,000 volts. At
various substations this is reduced to 13,000 volts for local distribution.
At present the company is operating some 500 miles of transmission line,
237 miles of which is at 88,000 volts. It is serving or is under contract
to serve some seventy coal mining companies, which operate five, six, seven
and up to fifteen mines.
The Logan County Light & Power Company has a new central station, completed
within the past year, in the heart of the Guyan Valley coal field. At
present sixty-five mines are operated in this field, of which the central
station supplies nineteen.
The Tug River Power Company supplies to some twenty mines along the Norfolk
& Western Railroad, in the Thacker and Pocahontas coal fields of West
Virginia.
In Virginia, the Black Mountain Power Company, from its plant at St.
Charles, supplies fifteen mines in the Wise and Lee county mining fields.
In Kentucky, the Consolidation Coal Company (previously referred to)
maintains a central station for its great new mining plants at Jenkins and
McRoberts; also for the mines of the Elkhorn Mining Corporation at Fleming.
The Kentucky Public Utilities Company, with headquarters at Lexington, has
plants in the Harlan and Bell County mining districts, and in the
newly-opened Hazard field.
ALL NEW MINES ELECTRICALLY OPERATED
Practically all new mines being opened are equipped for electric operation
and to purchase power where available. And, at the same time, a large
number of companies are discarding their own power plants to purchase from
central stations. The reasons for this are stated as follows:
1. Lower cost of operation.
2. Enables mine operator to "stick to his business"--mining and shipping
coal.
3. Reliability of service
4. Reduced expense when mine is shut down.
5. Leaves capital free for new development and improvements.
6. Increased output and additional power can be obtained with but small
increase in capital.
7. No change in speed of ventilating fan or pumps due to falling steam
pressure.
8. Absence of danger from high pressure boilers.
9. Easy comparisons of power expense per month.
10 Conservation of labor supply.
Most of these points are obvious, but some may be examined in detail,
taking first the cost of power.
The cost of power in coal mining is relatively small. In new mines, in
nearly all cases, the cost of operation, including interest on investment
and depreciation of equipment, is less with purchased power. In old mines,
totally different sets of conditions may be presented in each case. In
some, a saving would be shown by a change to the use of power from a
central station; in others a loss would result. For example: If a mine has
a considerable amount of "bone" coal which can be used in a power plant and
if this plant has relatively new and efficient equipment, there would be a
loss. But if all the coal mined can be sold, and if the individual power
plant has reached or is passing its maximum of efficiency, then a saving
will be realized by purchasing power from a central station.
The operator of new mines cannot accurately foretell how large a power
plant will be required, but is likely to install one with too large a
capacity; and this results in idle and useless equipment, ties up funds and
thus increases operating costs--the cost per ton of the coal mined. On the
other hand, most plants are too small, and the owner is continually calling
for an increased tonnage, which cannot be given for lack of power.
Where power is purchased from a central station small units can be
installed at the beginning, and as the units are developed additional units
can be added at a small expense.
A TYPICAL COST COMPARISON
The following is a comparison between the costs of a steam plant and
installations for using power from a central station, in a mine to produce
from 150,000 to 250,000 tons of coal per annum:
Steam Central
Items Plant Station
Buildings $9,500.00 $1,000.00
Foundations 1,000.00 250.00
Boilers, three, 150 hp 6,000.00 . . . . .
Pumps and piping 2,500.00 . . . . .
Engines, 300 hp 3,000.00 . . . . .
Generators 200 kw 3,500 00 *3,700.00
Switchboard 300.00 300.00
Wiring and installation 2,600.00 600.00
Incidentals 2,500.00 600.00
Total $28,000.00 $6,450.00
--------
*Rotaries or motor generator set.
In many cases a substation building can be erected for less than the amount
shown above--$1250. Fig. 3 shows one which was built by the Appalachian
Power Company in April of this year at a total cost of $489 for all labor
and materials. The floor is of concrete, 6 in. thick; the framing of 2-in.
by 4-in. lumber, and the sheathing of corrugated iron covered with asbestos.
The next most important reason in the list above is the necessity for
spending larger sums in making better living conditions for the
employees--in better housing for them, in safety appliances, and in
providing better schools and places of amusement and recreation. In the
regions here referred to a number of coal mining companies have converted
their old power plants--some of them good concrete buildings--into
amusement and recreation halls, containing moving-picture theaters, reading
rooms, swimming pools and gymnasiums. The new mines not having the initial
cost of a power plant to provide for are building better houses for the
workmen.
Another improvement in coal mining, and one directly in line with the
business of mining coal, instead of the manufacture of power, is the
construction of modern tipples, with devices for better cleaning of the
coal and loading it without breakage.
COAL MINE LOAD FACTORS
The load factor varies with the different mines and with conditions
existing. In individual cases it is as low as 15 per cent, while in others
it is as high as 60 per cent. Mines with the greatest amount of pumping to
do and ventilating fans of the largest size, of course, have the highest
load factor. With respect to diversity factor, however, it has been found
that 3 hp. in connected load at the mines requires 1-kw demand at the power
station. The average energy consumption in a drift mine, where the amount
of pumping is not abnormal, is about 2.5 kw.-hr. per ton of coal mined.
Although "pick" mining is a method still extensively employed in the
regions stated, machine mining has passed it in volume of coal produced;
and electrically driven machines to "undercut" the coal preparatory to
"shooting" it from the face of the seam have about displaced similar
machines driven by compressed air. In West Virginia, for the year 1914,
there were 2467 electrically driven mining machines in use in 489 of the
718 mines in the state, producing about 55 per cent of the total coal
output. Since then about sixty new mines have been opened, and a large
number of the older ones electrified. In the other states nearly all the
old mines have been electrified and many new ones opened, each with
electrical power and equipment.
A great majority of the mines--fully 75 per cent--are ventilated by fans,
electrically driven and motor haulage of coal from the working face to the
tipple or headhouse has about displaced the mine mule, except for room work
or in driving entries; though even here the storage battery motor is being
used more and more.
Most of the mines in the Southern Appalachians are in coal beds which crop
out in the sides of hills and mountains, and are called drift mines.
However, there are some which lie below the surface, and electricity is
employed to hoist the coal from the workings. It is also extensively used
in pumping water out of the mines and water from deep wells into the tanks
in use for supplying the mining towns, for lighting the towns and, to an
increasing extent, in the operation of the tipples--the newer types
mentioned--to run the conveyor line, to oscillate the screens which
separate the coal, and to raise or lower the boom which deposits the coal
in railroad cars.
In addition, electricity is employed in the machine shops of the coal
companies and for hoisting supplies from the railroad tracks to the mines
above.
*Electrical Worl*d, July 22, 1916, Pg. 183-185,
https://books.google.com/books?id=rwRKAQAAMAAJ&lpg=PA184&ots=vW7gyUne_r&dq=Appalachian%20Power%20Sprigg&pg=PA185#v=onepage&q=Sprigg&f=false
-----
CONSTRUCTION
SPRIGG, W. VA. -- Contract has been awarded by the Tug River Power Company
for addition to power house and boiler room. Two 3750-kva turbines with
necessary equipment will be installed. Orders have also been placed for
equipment. The company will supply electricity to coal mines in this
district and also for lighting at Williamson and Matewan. C. M. Gates of
Welch is general manager.
Electrical World, July 29, 1916, Pg. 253,
https://books.google.com/books?id=rwRKAQAAMAAJ&lpg=PA184&ots=vW7gyUne_r&dq=Appalachian%20Power%20Sprigg&pg=PA253#v=onepage&q=Sprigg&f=false
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