The Red Rock Power Plant is located at 695 East Skyline
Drive and is owned and operated by the City of St. George. The plant is
powered by 2- 10,000 horsepower Enterprise engines and each engine drives
a 7,000 kilowatt generator. The plant commenced operation in 1986 and was
used to shave peak loads for the first three years. In 1989 the City signed
a contract with UAMPS (Utah Association of Municipal Power Systems) and
placed both engines in a pool along with six other cities that have generation.
The engines are currently used to cover emergency load and voltage problems
throughout Utah. Both engines are kept in a "Hot Standby" status
to prevent damage during quick loading - 10 minutes from not running to
fully loaded. The plant generates on the average of 300,000 kilowatt hours
annually.
This plant also houses the Water & Power Control Center which includes
the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system. There are five
Dispatcher/Controllers that work a rotating 12 hour shift, 24 hours per
day, 365 days per year to maintain load and voltage on the St. George grid.
They monitor and control 1- 345kV substation at Central, Utah, 2- 138 kV
substations in St. George, 1- 138kV Switch yard just North of the City and
16- 69 to 13.2kV distribution substations. They also monitor and control
13 water tanks, 5 pumping stations, 9 valve stations and 1 irrigation system
which includes the Entrada Golf Course and the Dixie Downs 6 th
Grade Center . St. George Power also has a sophisticated voltage control
system that is installed on the distribution lines throughout the city and
operated through SCADA control. |
| Click on piture for larger
image |
Enterprise engine from
the floor |
Engine control panel,
which has alarm
screens and all pump
status points, engine
cylinder temps, and
all critical fluid points |
Left bank of engine &
radiator |
View of Red Rock plant
with engines running, note
slight haze for the stacks...
engines are kept in optimum
operational condition. |
View of Red Rock plant
without engines running |
Control Room |
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