Salt River Project (SRP) has completed a multi-year upgrade of its hydroelectric facilities along the Salt River in Arizona, modernising four dams – Roosevelt, Horse Mesa, Mormon Flat, and Stewart Mountain – which collectively generate 265MW of electricity.
The project involved replacing legacy excitation systems and integrating them with existing distributed control systems. SRP standardised on Emerson’s Ovation™ Automation Platform and applied modern control strategies, resulting in a 30% reduction in operations and maintenance costs and a 50% decrease in troubleshooting time. The upgrades also improve operational visibility for critical start-up and shutdown procedures, reducing delays that previously could have doubled process times.
“As the long-time operator of the Bureau of Reclamation’s dams, we have a responsibility to ensure delivery of a reliable, clean and continuous source of power the community depends on,” said Shari Brady, SRP Hydro electrical engineer. “By standardising on Emerson’s fully unified Ovation automation platform across our hydro fleet for excitation and plant control – and through close collaboration between project teams – we completed all system installations on time, even with aggressive schedules. We now have greater operational insight and easier troubleshooting, which helps us maintain unit reliability in the 90th percentile.”
The upgrades are part of SRP’s broader effort to address rising electricity demand driven by population growth in the Phoenix area and extreme service-area temperatures.
“Increased visibility and reliability of hydro operations helps Salt River Project ensure continuous operation to efficiently supply their customers with the power they rely on 24/7,” said Bob Yeager, president of Emerson’s power and water business. “SRP’s vision for standardising on a fully unified automation system was a transformative step that will position them for success – even in the face of shifting energy markets and increased need for power – for decades to come.”
The custom Ovation Excitation Systems, including two designed for pump and energy storage units with unique requirements in pump mode, were integrated into the existing Ovation distributed controls. The unified platform improves hydroelectric capabilities, supports grid reliability, and helps accommodate the growing use of renewable energy sources like solar and wind.
SRP’s standardised automation platform also simplifies operations and maintenance by using common spare parts, streamlining training, maintaining operator familiarity, and providing a single point of contact for automation support and service.
