Industry publication, December 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

■I i^onsti^uetion technology, hyp R pJMMMl

Growing Power Needs Spur I Expansion of Existing Capacity - Collaboration and technology upgrades boost projects

H ydropower was one of the founda- dropower Association bestowed its annu­ New development is not just focused I tions of U.S. economic develop­ al Achievement Award on Tacoma Power on small facilities. Owners of large-scale 't ment in the 20th Century, evi- for its efforts to build consensus among hydro plants are aggressively rehabilitat- denced by monumental projects such as all parties in relicensing the 462-Mw Cow- ing and upgrading existing facilities to i Hoover and Grand Coulee dams. But as litz River project in Washington state, add capacity, improve reliability, reduce 1

the century closed, prime hydropower Such collaborative efforts, sanctioned by O&M cost, comply with tighter environ- sites had been exploited and the tech- FERC a few years ago, are growing as appli- mental rules or extend plant life. Some nology’s long-term environmental and cants accept the challenge of linking di- studies estimate such efforts wiU add up societal impacts questioned. Those con- verse parties interested in hydropower to 17,000 Mw of capacity without building sequences, in many cases, reduced inter- projects. a single new dam. fl

est in hydropower. ocuAta Two major upgrades are under way at Today, changes in market conditions .............. the massive Grand Coulee facility in i and advances in technology have sparked Some new projects also are quietly com- Washington state, set for completion in a renewed attention to hydropower, with ing on line in North America. Most are in 2007. Runners of the 18 original main construction of new plants and rehabili- the West and use small hydro turbines to turbines in the left and right powerplants tation of existing ones again under way. replace energy-dissipation equipment in will be replaced to increase efficiency and Last year, the Federal Energy Regulatory water-supply systems. A typiical example is performance. The replacement of stators Commission formally asked hydro owners the 200-kw project at a water treatment and stator cores, an impressive effort in the power-starved western U.S. to facility for California’s Palmdale Water because of their size—each stator ring explore ways to increase energy produc­ District, designed by Montgomery Wat- weighs 740 tons, stands 12 ft tall, and is 76 tion from existing dams. Permit appli­ son Harza, Broomfield, Colo. A much feet in diameter—was finished in 1998 cations for new hydro developments larger project is the 170-Mw Keenleyside and accomplished without removing ro- jumped from two per month to over 30 facility, recently built near an existing tors or replacing any of the rotating ele­ per month by the summer of 2001. dam on the Columbia River, near Castle- ments’ components. The new stators have gar, B.C. It comprises a two-unit, single raised Grand Coulee’s total capacity to RELICENSING monolith powerhouse and a 1,200-ft-long 6,809 Mw at foil head. While the noisy debate about breaching concrete face rockfiU dam. The design- dams and prematurely shuttering hydro build team, headed by Peter Kiewit Sons FISH-FRIENDLY plants grabs headlines, some owners have Inc., Omaha, met an aggressive schedule Application of advanced technologies actually succeeded in extending plant that required continuous coordination can boost plant operating efficiencies by lives. In April 2001, the National Hy- with designers and equipment suppliers. 5% or more, and capacities by 20% or ........ more. Three-dimensional computation­ al fluid dynamics software is boosting hydro turbine performance and helping to make equipment more environmen­ tally friendly.

a In fall 2001, one such turbine was in­ troduced by two Massachusetts firms, Al­ den Research Laboratory Inc., Holden, and Concepts NREC, Woburn. Design also was supported by the U.S. Energy I, Dept, and the Hydropower Research Foundation Inc. The turbine features only three blades, fewer than conven­ tional hydro turbines, to reduce fish mor­ I tality. But the blades are also much longer to extract enough energy from water. To accomplish this, blades are wrapped W around the central hub in a corkscrew Rj that minimizes sudden changes in flow Il velocity, which could injure fish. □ FACE LIFT Keenleyside project In Canada adds a 170-IVIw powerhouse at existing dam. By Robert Swanekamp

POWERPLANT CONSTRUCTION‘51

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