BTW, I did not know we could build the worlds largest anything anymore. Other than the worlds largest deficit.
The civil engineer in me is geeking out of this. :)
So, are the generators and pump motors high enough so they don’t flood like in Katrina?
The World’s largest pumping station?
Not by a long shot.
For example, Duke Energy’s Bad Creek Pumped Storage project on the SC/NC border is a “gravity battery” whereby excess electricity generated at night by the Oconee Nuclear Plant is used to pump water from Lake Jocassee up into the Bad Creek reservoir, over 1000 feet above the level of Jocassee. Then during peak demand in the afternoon, that water runs back down through the pump turbines which now become generators.
This Plaquemines Parish project uses 11 diesels at 5400 hp each, roughly 60,000hp or about 45 MW.
The Bad Creek generators are rated for 250MW each but actually put out 330MW at full pond. Four generators equals one to one point two gigawatts.
1,609,227 horsepower as generators. As pumps, add 10% +/-.
(oops! just read the actual article. Headline states “Touring world’s largest pump station?” Text of article says, “The world’s largest drainage pump station”... )
Drainage, OK, they win.