Power Resources
WHITE CREEK WIND I
White Creek Wind Project is the largest public power initiated wind project in the United States. It is located in the Columbia River Gorge on 9,500 acres of ranchland, 21 miles east of Goldendale, Washington.
Siemens Power Generation supplied, installed, and commissioned the eight-nine 2.3 megawatt (MW) wind turbines and associated towers, and other equipment at the project.
Total installed capacity is 205MW. With a one-third capacity factor, the projected annual output is 68 average megawatts.
Commercial operation began November 2008.
McNARY FISHWAY HYDRO PROJECT
Northern Wasco PUD (NWPUD) and Klickitat PUD equally own the McNary Fishway Hydro Project. The project is located on the Columbia River about 180 miles east of Portland, Oregon.
The project uses one of two fish ladders on the McNary Dam. Supplementary water flow is re-routed to the ladder, runs through the 10 MW turbine at 1600 cubic feet per second, and is then routed back to its original path. This method utilizes an energy source without subtracting from the water flow for the fish attraction system.
Commercial operation began October 1997.
H.W. HILL LANDFILL GAS PROJECT
The project is located at a regional landfill in Roosevelt, Washington, approximately 45 miles east of Goldendale, Washington.
Roosevelt Regional Landfill is the 4th largest permitted landfill in the United States. The landfill accepts two million tons of waste a year, from as far away as Alaska and Northern California. It is permitted for 120 million tons.
The project was initially designed with four Waukesha reciprocating engines converted to run on methane. Total initial capacity was 8.4 megawatts. A fifth engine was added at the end of the plant’s first year of operation, boosting capacity to 10.5 megawatts.
Methane is collected in a network of wells and perforated pipe buried in the landfill itself. Blowers create a vacuum system to draw the methane out of the landfill before it is released into the air. Hundreds of feet of collection pipe transport the methane from the landfill to equipment to compress the gas and filter out impurities. Clean, compressed gas is used to operate the engines.
Expansion is underway to add an additional 36 megawatts of generation.
Commercial operation began in 1999.
230 kV TRANSMISSION LINES AND SUBSTATION
In 2002 the first 230 kV substation was completed along with ten miles of 230 kV transmission line. Since then, Klickitat PUD has added six additional substations and thirty-six miles of transmission line.