Managing an electrical grid is all about balancing the electricity that plants can supply with the instantaneous demands of consumers. If there’s more power available than people need, it needs to get stored somehow. And for decades, the best way to store that excess supply has been in hydroelectric reservoirs like at the Taum Sauk Dam. These facilities pump water to a reservoir at a higher elevation when there’s extra electrical power available, and, when more power is needed, release that water to run through hydroturbines.
But storing water atop a mountain comes with unusual challenges for dam, and the 2005 failure of the Taum Sauk Dam facility highlights some important lessons for engineers. As Grady lays out in this Practical Engineering video, there was no single mistake that led directly to the dam’s failure. Instead, post-collapse investigations found a series of seemingly minor issues that, together, led to catastrophe. It’s well worth watching, especially for engineers; we could all use an occasional reminder that a “quick stopgap measure” isn’t enough. (Video and image credit: Practical Engineering)