The New York Power Authority (NYPA) has awarded contracts with a total value of over $20 million to Ferguson Electric Construction Co and Quality Inspection Services for work on the utility’s Niagara hydroelectric project.

The New York Power Authority (NYPA) has awarded contracts with a total value of over $20 million to Ferguson Electric Construction Co and Quality Inspection Services for work on the utility’s Niagara hydroelectric project.

Ferguson Electric was awarded a seven-year contract, for just over $19 million, to install auxiliary equipment as part of NYPA’s ongoing upgrade of its Lewiston Pump-Generating Plant (LPGP), one of the two generating facilities at the Niagara project.

In 2010, the NYPA Trustees authorized a 10-year, $460 million Life Extension and Modernization (LEM) program for the LPGP. The plant’s original, aging transformers, motor-generators, pump-turbines and related equipment are being replaced, or upgraded, with new state-of-the-art technology to reinforce and improve generating capacity.

Ferguson Electric, as part of the LEM, will install static exciters, generator circuit-breakers, cable, conduits, unit instrumentation and AC/DC distribution systems equipment to all 12 pump-turbine units at LPGP.

Overhaul of the LPGP’s first unit was completed in October 2013. Work on a second unit is well underway, with all units to be upgraded by 2020.

A five-year contract, not-to-exceed $1.25 million, was awarded to Quality Inspection Services (QISI) for on-call testing and inspection services at the Niagara project. NYPA requires on-call, third-party testing and inspection services to ensure quality assurance for its ongoing construction projects.

QISI successfully completed prior work at the Niagara project, including concrete testing and inspection of the dam face of the Robert Moses power plant, switchyard structure foundation repairs and weld inspections.