Ravenswood 3 (AKA Big Allis)

[Dan Selden]

Some facts about the power station… actually a bit of interesting history.

• generates 2,480 megawatts by steam turbine, combustion turbine, and combined cycle technology.
• uses advanced controls to reduce impact on water and air… see below to read about the actual systems in use… a bit over my head.
• commissioned by Con-Ed in 1965 as the first million-kilowatt unit in the world that could serve 3 million people.
• Tunnel under the East River supplies steam as needed.
• In 1999, Con-ed was forced to sell because of deregulation. KeySpan purchased it for $600 million dollars. KeySpan and National Grid merge in 2007 which gives them too much influence over the cost of electricity and so they are forced to sell once again. TransCanada Corp of Calgary buys it for $2.9 billion.

via and article about Aspestos  http://www.mesotheliomasymptoms.com/ravenswood-generating-station

I'll include some of the pictures I took below… I only included a few… as the security guard told me, "no photography allowed… just search on google". I'm really curious about how centralized energy moves around the country… both acquiring the raw materials and distributing the actual energy. It's interesting to see that a Canadian company out of Calgary owns the plant… they also own a natural gas pipeline called the Iroquois pipeline which enters the country by the east end of Lake Ontario and travels down through NY. In any case, I'm starting to work on a dataVis that maps our relationship to centralized energy… Big Allis may make for a good case study. It's surprisingly difficult to find useful data (maybe I'm not looking hard enough)… but its awesome to imagine that in a decentralized intelligent energy system, this data will be both abundant and transparent… a live dataVis would be easy!

Some more info on TransCanada Corp: http://www.transcanada.com/powermarketing.html

 

Dan Selden

www.dss49.com
e: seld...@newschool.ed
p: 847.691.5112

[Natalie Jeremijenko]

Lots more questions about Big Allis: 

fracking gas / which companies sell to TransCanada  ... can we map the fracking fields to here? 

Asthma alley runs infront of Big Allis... and by the largest housing project in the city. There are other emissions from other facilities, but I reviewed the regulation compliance docs of Trans Canada and they look good on paper. But the neighborhood doesn't. Also they warm the water there, where the outlet is, creating a aquatic microclimate of fish soup that may well attract and foster biodiversity as well as macerate fish on the intake. That needs some looking at. 

btw I toured through Big Allis and developed a good connection or two inside, including one (brooklyn based indy band playing)engineer who was genuinely interested in alternatives.  I also have lots of good ConED info. The tidal turbines were right off the water front there too ... 

--
Natalie Jeremijenko, Environmental Health Clinic
Associate Professor in Art,
Affiliated faculty in Computer Science
Affiliated faculty in Environmental Studies
The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, & Human Development
New York University

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