South Pole Station power plant
2014-12-26
The station is powered by three huge Caterpillar 3512 1250kW diesel generators, two of which are operating at any one time, with the third one ready to cut in at a moment's notice (unless it's being serviced). There is also a smaller Caterpillar 3406 250kW "peaker", to meet brief high-usage demands. Deep underground in the fuel arch is storage for 0.5M gallons (1.9M litres) of "Cat food". Each of the 3512s burns about 50 gallons/hour. The landed cost for AN8 jet fuel (brought here as surplus in the tanks of LC-130 aircraft) is estimated at 35 USD/gallon. At -50C the vapour pressure is very low, nonetheless the sign reads "positively no smoking" in there!
