One of the three turbines was broken, and the company rebuilt it from scratch and installed an automatic trash rake to keep the intake gate's gutter free of water chestnuts and weeds, according to President William Fay. It also computerized the entire facility to monitor everything from water levels to electrical conditions. The system automatically opens the gates to let more water in when the river rises -- a job done manually in the past.
After three years of refurbishing, the "new-like" plant began selling power in 2006. The three turbines generate 600 volts AC power, which three larger transformers step up to 66,000 volts AC. The power is distributed to users in the Devens area through National Grid.
Fay, who owns 12 hydro plants across New England, last saw a hydropower boom when President Jimmy Carter signed the Public Utility
Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, requiring utility companies to buy any electricity available from non-utility power generators at the same rate they would pay to conventional power suppliers. The act also allowed, for the first time in the U.S. history, a private citizen to file for federal eminent domain to use a dam or construct a plant on someone else's property, according to Fay.
"It was like a mad gold rush," Fay said of how people were jumping into hydropower business when he entered the field with a mechanical engineering degree from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. He later obtained a master's from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
As the "oil shock" faded away and electricity became available more cheaply from coal-fired power plants, many walked away from hydropower business. But, now that soaring fossil fuel prices pushed up electricity rates from 2.8 cents per kwh on an average in 2001 to 8.5 cents in 2009, people are again trying to get back in the game, Fay says.
For Fay, though, the history behind the dams and the power of the nature are just as fascinating as the business aspect. Over the decades, he's witnessed housing and commercial developments make river levels fluctuate. And he wants to make sure he will continue to see eagles fly over the rivers when sitting on a bank, taking a break from work.
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