Reliant Energy of Houston, Texas, US has announced the completion of a US$10M refurbishment at its Higley hydro power plant.
The work saw the installation of four turbines from Canadian Hydro Components of Ontario, Canada and four 1.5MW generators supplied by Mexican company Potencia at the facility, located on the Raquette river in Colton, New York.
As a result of the project, Higley now operates with an increased total generation capacity of 6.1MW, compared to an initial 5MW.
Four new penstocks, intake, headgates and trashracks were installed in addition to controls and switchgear supplied by North American Hydro. The modernisation work was part of Reliant’s relicensing application for the plant, which was built in 1911.
Pat Wood III, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said: ‘I commend Reliant, federal and state resource agencies, and local interest groups for reaching a mutually satisfactory settlement of the competing uses of the Raquette river that was used for the relicensing of this project. This project provides benefits to water quality, fishery resources, recreation and economic development.’
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