Dale Hollow Dam is saving energy

Photo By Mark Rankin | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District electricians at Dale Hollow Dam on the Obey river have began a Sustainability Program Initiative project which includes replacing the contracted local utility power source to the Dale Hollow resource managers office, maintenance shops, and transient quarters with direct power from the Dale Hollow Power House. The project calls for the installation of energy saving LED lights to be installed throughout the Dam area saving money and energy.  

NASHVILLE , TN, UNITED STATES

02.26.2013

Story by Mark Rankin 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville District

CELINA, Tenn. – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District electricians at Dale Hollow Dam on the Obey river have began the tedious transition process of the district’s Sustainability Program Initiative which includes replacing the contracted local utility power source to the Dale Hollow resource managers office, maintenance shops, and transient quarters with direct power from the Dale Hollow Power Plant.

According to Stanley Carter, Dale Hollow power plant senior electrician, the bulk of the work includes: extending new cable in the power house from the station service board to the transformer; installing four- inch metal conduit through the dam’s cable tunnel, and replacing 15 existing 400-watt sodium metal halide lighting systems and eight, 1000-watt high pressure sodium metal halide bulbs in the boat house area and three main street lights on the overlook with new high efficient LED energy saving commercial lighting systems.

The majority of the work will be provided by contractors while working closely with the electricians and district personnel here.

According to Carter, LED lighting offers an unprecedented opportunity for the district to save energy, maintenance and is a natural fit for cutting-edge renovation.

Qualified commercial products use at least 75 percent less energy, last 6-10 times longer than incandescent lighting and should save the corps hundreds of thousands of dollars in the future.

Dale Hollow Lake is a vacation destination and quiet getaway that borders the Tennessee-Kentucky state line and each year the lake not only provides function to control the floodwaters of the Obey River. It contributes to the reduction of flood levels at municipal, industrial and agricultural areas along the Cumberland, lower Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and the generation of clean, safe and efficient hydroelectric power but offers recreational opportunities to millions of visitors each year.

Amy Tyree, a Nashville District engineering technician in the hydropower branch, oversees the district’s Sustainability Program Initiative and explains that through maintenance, repairs, time, effort and planning, the district is changing it ways, and going green with a new way of thinking.

“When it comes to new building maintenance and construction what we are doing is incorporating energy saving conservation measures to every effort that the Corps is doing and those are positive results,” said Tyree.

Dale Hollow Lake and Dam is one of the Nashville District’s most visited multi-purpose projects that make up the Corps of Engineers’ system for development of the water resources of the Cumberland River Basin.

Power produced at Dale Hollow is sufficient to supply the needs of an average city of 45,000 people.

For more news, updates and information please follow the Nashville District on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/nashvillecorps or http://www.lrn.usace.army.mil/Media/NewsStories/tabid/6957/Year/2013/Default.aspx.

• Date Taken: 02.26.2013
• Date Posted: 03.08.2013 15:23
• Story ID: 103173
• Location: NASHVILLE , TN, US
• Hometown: CELINA, TN, US