Edmonston Pumping Plant is a

pumping station Pumping stations, also called pumphouses, are public utility buildings containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are critical in a variety of infrastructure systems, such as water supply, Land reclamation, ...

near the south end of the

California Aqueduct The Governor Edmund G. Brown California Aqueduct is a system of canals, tunnels, and pipelines that conveys water collected from the Sierra Nevada and valleys of Northern and Central California to Southern California. Named after California Gov ...

, which is the principal feature of the

California State Water Project The California State Water Project, commonly known as the SWP, is a state water management project in the U.S. state of California under the supervision of the California Department of Water Resources. The SWP is one of the largest public wat ...

. It lifts water 1,926 feet (600 m) to cross the

Tehachapi Mountains The Tehachapi Mountains (; Kawaiisu: ''Tihachipia'', meaning "hard climb") are a mountain range in the Transverse Ranges system of California in the Western United States. The range extends for approximately in southern Kern County and northwe ...

where it splits into the west and east branches of the California Aqueduct serving Southern California. It is the most powerful water lifting system in the world, not considering

pumped-storage hydroelectricity Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH), or pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES), is a type of hydroelectric energy storage used by electric power systems for load balancing (electrical power), load balancing. A PSH system stores energy i ...

stations. There are 14 4-stage 80,000-horsepower

centrifugal pump Centrifugal pumps are used to transport fluids by the Energy transformation, conversion of rotational kinetic energy to the hydrodynamic energy of the fluid flow. The rotational energy typically comes from an engine or electric motor. They are ...

s that push the water up to the top of the mountain. Each motor-pump unit stands 65-feet high and weighs 420 tons. The pumps themselves extend downward six floors. Each unit discharges water into a manifold that connects to the main discharge lines. The two main discharge lines stairstep up the mountain in an 8400-foot-long tunnel. They are 12.5 feet in diameter for the first half and 14 feet in diameter for the last half. They each contain 8.5 million gallons of water at all times. At full capacity, the pumps can fling nearly 2 million gallons per minute up over the Tehachapis. A 68-foot-high, 50-foot-diameter surge tank is located at the top of mountain. This prevents tunnel damage when the valves to the pumps are suddenly open or closed. Near the top of the lift there are valves which can close the discharge lines to prevent

backflow Backflow is a term in plumbing for an unwanted flow of water in the reverse direction. It can be a serious health risk for the contamination of potable water supplies with foul water. In the most obvious case, a toilet flush cistern and its wate ...

into the pumping plant below in event of a rupture. The station consumes up to 787 MW of electricity, delivered through a dedicated 230kV

transmission line In electrical engineering, a transmission line is a specialized cable or other structure designed to conduct electromagnetic waves in a contained manner. The term applies when the conductors are long enough that the wave nature of the transmis ...

from the nearby

Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (SCE), the largest subsidiary of Edison International, is the primary electric utility company for much of Southern California. It provides 15 million people with electricity across a service territory of approximate ...

Pastoria substation.

Characteristics

* Number of units: 14 (two galleries of 7) * Normal static head: *Motor rating: each * Total motor rating: ) * Flow per motor at design head: 315 ft³/s (9 m³/s) * Total flow at design head: 4410 ft³/s (125 m³/s)

References

External links

DWR Edmonston Pumping Station

A.D. Edmonston Pumping Plant

The Big Lift: A photo tour of the State Water Project’s Edmonston Pumping Plant
{{- California State Water Project Buildings and structures in Kern County, California Water supply pumping stations in the United States Water supply infrastructure in California Interbasin transfer San Joaquin Valley Tehachapi Mountains