PRAIRIE DU SAC, Wis. -- For more than a century the Prairie du Sac dam has been generating power for thousands of Wisconsinites. News 3 Now gained access to an exclusive look inside to learn about how it operates and what it's owner, Alliant Energy is doing to keep it in working order.
The dam, located about a mile north of Prairie du Sac, was built in 1914 on the banks of the Wisconsin River. It created Lake Wisconsin to it's north as well as a great wildlife viewing areas to it's south.
"This is the largest dam on the Wisconsin River," said Rob Vyvyan, lead generation engineer at Alliant. At one point it was the largest west of Niagara Falls, NY.
News 3 Now's Kyle Pozorski was guided on a tour by Vyvyan and Jake Hebl, manager of renewable assets at Alliant. Vyvyan's expertise with dams dates back to his time working on others along the Mississippi River. "You know, this is a little smaller than that," remarked Vyvyan.
It may be small, however it's still mighty. The Prairie du Sac dam is equipped with a total of eight generators producing over 31 megawatts of power. Alliant says that's enough to power 30,000 homes.
But it requires a lot of upkeep. Right now, the facility is going through it's multi year plan of upgrades including replacing the original spillway gates. Those are where the water goes through when there's too much for the generators to handle. During our visit only one gate was open, a sign the water levels are too high, maxing out the generators.
Several of the new gates installed in previous years are equipped with auto lifting mechanisms. "It's a press of a button and there's a winch cable system that opens it versus a manual process," said Hebl.
That process is one of the many projects Alliant has undertaken to bring the dam up to date.
Another one of the many projects done in recent years included driving in new micro piles keeping the dam attached to the river bed. "Over the years, tail waters receded and started to expose those piles to air so we did a project a few years ago to install micro piles into the spill way. And that's designed that those are now starting to take the load," said Hebl.
Alliant is planning to continue work this summer with another set of gates being replaced. The energy company's goal is to do six to ten per year through 2026.
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