Brad Spangler, Senior Manager Engineering for the Snohomish County P.U.D., told us about the the P.U.D.'s tidal water power project, at our September 17 meeting.

 

 

By 2020 the PUD will need additional sources of power.  It currently gets 85% of its power from the BPA.  An additional 9% is purchased on the market and 6% is generated at Culmback Dam in the Sultan River Basin.  The Dam forms Spada Lake and is a source for Everett's water supply.  The drought has resulted in the lake being 60' down from its normal level.

 

Conservation is much cheaper than building more generators and the PUD offers free consultation to businesses.

 

The PUD has researched generating power using the tidal currents and in fact had a test sight all permitted.  It is in Admiralty Inlet near Fort Casey and would have involved 2 co-centric generators 20 feet in diameter.

 

 

The platform and generator weigh about 400 tons in order to withstand the continual ebb and flow tides.  There is a window from August to October only that the work of submerging and running cables to a structure on shore can occur.  The cable would be 8" in diameter and the turban generators would be in about 200' of water.

 

Cameras and microphones were to be placed on the platform for the University of Washington to monitor how marine animals react. 

 

The funding has been shared equally with the US Energy Department.  When the cost increased from $20 million to $44 million the Energy Department pulled th plug on continued financing.  The PUD could not afford to go alone.  The power that the would be generated would be at a cost of $400 per megawatt.  The PUD can buy energy elsewhere for $65 per megawatt. 

 

The project is licensed for 10 years so if the cost of energy keeps rising, the option will be open to continue the research project.

 

More can be seen on the project by clicking here.