The New York Power Authority on Feb. 26 announced the successful return to service of the first of 13 turbine generating units to be upgraded as part of NYPA’s Next Generation Niagara modernization and digitization program.
The $1.1 billion effort, launched in 2019, will extend the operating life of NYPA’s Niagara Power Project in Lewiston, ensuring that the largest source of clean electricity in New York State and one of the largest hydropower facilities in the country is upgraded and operating as a best-in-the-industry facility, it noted.
The Niagara Power Project, with a capacity of generating 2,600 MW of clean electricity, is also celebrating the 65th anniversary of its first power this year recognizing the plant’s more than six decades of providing reliable, clean electricity to New Yorkers.
“Our Next Generation Niagara investments are modernizing and digitizing NYPA’s flagship Niagara Power Project so that it continues to reliably provide clean, low-cost energy to New Yorkers for decades to come,” said NYPA Chairman and Western New York resident John Koelmel. “As we celebrate the 65th anniversary of the first power the plant generated in 1961, we are making the investments necessary to ensure its safe and efficient operation for the next century. I congratulate all those who were part of the effort to get this first unit back-up-and-running.”
The Next Generation Niagara program includes replacing aging equipment with advanced machinery and digital technologies to optimize the hydroelectric project's performance. The turbine generating unit now returning to service has been both mechanically and digitally upgraded.
The work involved replacement of much of the turbine generator's equipment including wicket gates and operating mechanisms, head cover, turbine and generator shafts, turbine guide bearings as well as associated relays, switches and electrical components.
“The mechanical upgrade and digitization of each of the plant’s thirteen units—each one a self-contained miniature power plant generating enough energy to power a city the size of Rochester—will ensure that New York’s flagship clean energy power plant remains at the forefront of firm hydropower generation for many years to come,” said NYPA President and CEO Justin Driscoll. “As we continue to prioritize affordability and the reliability of our energy system, I am proud of NYPA’s proactive efforts to secure the long-term value of our low-cost, renewable, clean energy workhorse.”
The Next Generation Niagara initiative encompasses four major projects:
- Comprehensive inspections of the Robert Moses Plant's penstocks—the 485-foot conduits, 26 feet in diameter, that carry water from the forebay to the turbine generators.
- Replacement and upgrade of the project’s 630-ton gantry crane to a 680-ton crane, presently underway. The crane enables disassembly and reassembly of the generating units as they are taken off-line and upgraded as well as other heavy lifting around the site.
- Upgrading and digitizing unit control systems.
- Overhaul or replacement of mechanical components that have reached the end of their operating life.
Progress on Next Generation Niagara thus far has included the digitization of the control system for two units, including this one that was also mechanically upgraded, digitization and modernization of the project’s control room and controls in the associated switchyards, the fabrication and delivery of a new 680-ton crane, currently being assembled onsite.
