The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved an application lodged in April to amend the licence for the Pine Valley hydro project.
Pine Valley Hydro requested FERC’s approval to delete from the licence a minimum flow unit at the US project, located on the Souhegan river, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire.
The original licence was issued in October 1987 and authorised the project to include a 30kW minimum flow turbine located at the dam, and a generating unit with an installed capacity of 525kW. However, the minimum flow turbine failed and became inoperable in 1997.
Subsequent attempts to accomplish repairs and/or replace the minimum flow unit were unsuccessful. PVH determined that the costs associated with bringing the minimum flow turbine back online are not economically feasible. Consequently, PVH has removed the minimum flow unit from the project.