FERC relicenses Poe hydro project

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued an order issuing a new hydropower license to utility Pacific Gas & Electric Company for its Poe Hydroelectric Project.

The 143-megawatt project is located on the North Fork Feather River in northern California, and includes land within the Plumas National Forest. Originally licensed in 1953, the project includes two dams impounding reservoirs, a 33,000-foot-long pressure tunnel bypassing about 7.6 miles of the river, and a powerhouse with two turbines.

The Commission issued a new 40-year license for the Poe project to PG&E on December 17, 2018. In relicensing proceedings, the Commission considers a number of public interest factors, including the economic benefits of project power. In general, the Commission evaluates the economics of a hydropower project by comparing the current costs of the project to likely alternative power, without considering forecasts concerning potential future inflation, escalation, or deflation beyond the license issuance date. The Commission says the basic purpose of its economic analysis is to provide a general estimate of the potential power benefits and the costs of a project, and of reasonable alternatives to project power.

In the Poe project's case, the Commission noted that after considering mandatory conditions and other measures suggested by Commission staff, PG&E's annual cost of operating the project would be about $9,590,000. Assuming that the project would generate an average of 498,113 megawatt-hours of energy annually, this works out to $19.3 per megawatt-hour. By comparison, the Commission found that the project's the corresponding alternative energy cost plus the value of its dependable capacity gave this power a value of $50,800,000, or $102 per megawatt-hour in the first year of operation, the project would cost $41,210,000 or $82.7 per megawatt-hour less than the likely alternative cost of power.

Licensee seeks West Branch and Sysladobsis Dam amendment

A Maine dam owner has applied to federal regulators seeking to exclude from its hydropower license one of two dam-based developments which comprise the project.

At issue is the January 31, 2017 application of Woodland Pulp LLC to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for an amendment to the license for the West Branch Storage Dam Project.  The West Branch project was first licensed in 1980, and currently operates under a license issued by the Commission in 2016.  It includes two developments -- Sysladobsis and West Grand -- each of which operates as a water storage facility to provide flood storage and flow releases for downstream hydroelectric generation. 

As described in the license amendment application, the Sysladobsis development includes Sysladobsis Dam.  This dam is about 250 feet long and 9 feet high, consisting of three earth embankment sections, a small timber gate structure, and a fish passage facility.  The dam impounds the 5,400-acre Sysladobsis Lake; water released from the dam flows Sysladobsis Lake into the downstream West Grand impoundment, then into either Grand Lake Stream or Grand Lake Brook.  The project does not include any electricity generating facilities, but rather operates as part of a 112-year-old system of headwater storage dams in the St. Croix River watershed including Woodland Pulp LLC’s Forest City Project No. 2660 which the licensee has applied and the recently relicensed Vanceboro Project No. 2492. Generation associated with these projects occurs at the Grand Falls and Woodland hydroelectric projects downstream on the St. Croix River.

The licensee has requested FERC approval to remove the Sysladobsis development from the West Branch Project as a legal matter, and proposes "to remove the two wooden gates at the Sysladobsis Dam," but says it "does not propose to remove the Sysladobsis Dam as part of the amendment, and such removal is not necessary or appropriate."  Rather, the applicant asserts, "There will be no structural alteration of the dam, and there will be no discharge into the water. Once the gates are removed, the dam will no longer act as a water control structure for Sysladobsis Lake. Instead, impoundment levels and outflow will be determined by the natural precipitation cycle."

According to the licensee's application, "This change is necessary since operation of the Project as-is will no longer be economic under the new license issued March 15, 2016."  The licensee cited license terms and conditions including specific water level requirements and operating plans, reporting, and consultation requirements, "some with unreasonable time constraints."  The application notes, "As such Woodland cannot continue to fund and support the Sysladobsis development and incur increased losses on non-economically viable facility components."

In a separate docket, the Commission is considering an application by the same licensee to surrender its Forest City project license.

Alaska proposes large new dam

The Alaska Energy Authority has filed key documents with federal regulators giving formal notice of its intent to build the proposed 600 megawatt Susitna-Watana Hydroelectric Project.  If this project is approved and built, it will be the largest hydroelectric project developed in the U.S. since 1966.

Plans to develop a large-scale hydropower project on the Susitna river have been considered for decades.  In 2010, the Alaska Legislature established a goal of providing half of the state’s electric power from renewable sources by 2025.  The Alaska Energy Authority, a public corporation of the state whose mission is to use Alaska's natural resources to produce electricity and lower costs, concluded that Alaska could not meet the 50% renewable goal without building a major new hydroelectric project.

On December 29, 2011, the Alaska Energy Authority filed a notification of intent to file an application for a hydroelectric license and a pre-application document with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  FERC docketed the project as No. 14241.  (You can read these documents in FERC's eLibrary here.)

In those documents, the Alaska Energy Authority described the project as located about 180 miles north of Anchorage.  The dam itself would be large: 700 to 800 feet in height, and with a crest length of over 2,700 feet.  The dam would impound a 39-mile-long reservoir, flooding 20,000 acres and capable of storing about 2,400,000 acre-feet.  The Authority plans to install three 200 MW turbine-generator sets for a total installed capacity of 600 MW, but is considering up to 800 MW of capacity.

The Authority expects the FERC hydropower licensing process to take up to 6 years.  The size and impacts of the project make it attractive to some yet controversial to others.  Public comments are already being filed in the FERC docket.

June 15,2010 - Maine dam removal: Lower Montsweag Brook Dam

Two Maine dam removal projects recently won funding from nonprofit conservation organization American Rivers and the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Restoration Program. The Maine Council of the Atlantic Salmon Federation won $65,000 to remove the West Winterport Dam on Marsh Stream, a Penobscot River tributary, in Winterport and Frankfort, which will open up 4.5 miles of the stream and restore 20 miles of river habitat.

The other grant was $100,000 to the Chewonki Foundation for the removal of the Lower Montsweag Brook Dam near Wiscasset and Woolwich. This removal will reopen three miles of fish passage and restore the 20 acres of riverine habitat currently flooded by the dam.

Lower Montsweag Brook Dam (map) was constructed by Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company in 1968. The purpose of the 30' tall dam was to impound a backup supply of emergency water for Maine Yankee's nuclear power plant operations.

Chewonki acquired the dam as part of the 2008 Natural Resources Damages Restoration Plan and Settlement Agreement (NRDAR) between Maine Yankee and the State of Maine. As part of that settlement, Chewonki committed to evaluate alternatives for restoring fish passage and riparian habitat in the lower brook.

A feasibility study by Stantec Consulting, Inc., of Topsham, showed that removal of the concrete dam is the most effective and least expensive way to restore fish passage for fish species such as river herring, rainbow smelt, brook trout, and American eel.

Chewonki plans to remove the dam later this summer at a cost of $750,000 to $800,000. A slow drawdown of the impoundment was scheduled to begin in May. This drawdown will allow contractors to inspect the upstream face of the dam and to begin revegetating the impoundment area. Demolition activities will be scheduled to coincide with the low stream flow period of late summer.

4/28/10: dam repair and communications; from wood mill to energy plant

Dam news: repairs to the New Mills Dam in Gardiner, Maine. In order to repair two uprights on the New Mills Dam in Gardiner, the Cobbossee Watershed District has drawn down Cobbosseecontee Stream and attached Pleasant Pond by almost a vertical foot, exposing more pond and stream bottom than in the past six years. The two wooden uprights of the dam were damaged by high water and bashed by ice in late February. Kruger Energy, which also operates a hydroelectric dam downstream that it acquired last November from Ridgewood Maine Hydro Partners LP, is performing the repairs, which are expected to take one day.

The New Mills Dam demonstrates one relatively common form of small dam ownership in New England. In this case, the dam is owned by the municipalities of Gardiner, Litchfield and Richmond. These three owners pay for the upkeep, while Kruger Energy is contracted out to manage maintenance and repairs.

Here, the drawdown has concerned some people who live along the impoundment. They are concerned about erosion, nesting ducks, fish, and in general about the management of the impoundment. While the drawdown is required for safety during the dam repairs, this situation demonstrates the importance of communication and collaboration between dam owners and neighboring abutters.



From a forest products mill to an energy facility! The town of Madison is considering the potential transformation of the former Anson Stick Mill into an energy-producing facility. The town acquired the abandoned mill and its biomass boiler from Downeast Woodcrafters, and now is exploring creating a municipal heating district within the downtown area. While municipal heating districts are common in Europe, as well as on American institutional campuses (e.g. universities), the practice is not widely deployed in New England. Madison Economic Development Director Joy Hikel said the goal behind a potential energy-producing facility is twofold: to reduce heating or electricity costs for the owners of the downtown buildings by 40 to 50 percent, and to provide local utility Madison Electric Works with an affordable source of energy to sell to consumers.