X

Work continues at East Dam in Potsdam

Posted 11/18/20

BY ADAM ATKINSON North Country This Week POTSDAM -- Work continues at the village’s East Dam hydropower facility, where a major rehabilitation project has been underway for the last year. Village …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Work continues at East Dam in Potsdam

Posted

BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM -- Work continues at the village’s East Dam hydropower facility, where a major rehabilitation project has been underway for the last year.

Village Administrator Greg Thompson reported to the village board of trustees at their meeting Monday, Nov. 16 that there have been no changes with the status at the West Dam, but the work on the East Dam continues to move forward. Later in the meeting, the board approved several change orders for work at the facility.

“We are working diligently at East Dam at this time to get everything back together,” Thompson said. “We have met a slight delay. Hydrotech announced today that they have had a couple of their employees test positive for COVID so they shut down the testing of the turbines.”

Thompson said however that the testing was rescheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 17. “So we are really talking only a day or two. Fred (Hanss, director of the village Planning and Development Office) have been working really hard to keep them to their normal schedule which is the end of December.”

“So we are cautiously optimistic at this point that we will make power at East Dam before the first of the year,” the administrator said.

Thompson said the village has “preliminarily” received an extension on time from their funding sources for the hydropower rehab project. He added, however, that is something the village would “keep in their vest” to try to keep contractors on target with the work to be able to make power by the first of January.

The rehab project will cost just over $4 million which the village is financing through the New York Power Authority over 15 years.

Rebuilding of the two East Dam hydro turbines was done by firms in Maine and Pennsylvania.

The East Dam project which will ultimately bring two 400-watt kilowatt hydro generators there back online after they failed in 2014 and 2015 is expected to cost over $4 million.

The village is financing the project through the New York Power Authority over 15 years. NYPA is providing up front funding and expertise for the work.

Village officials hope that the revenue made from a working power generation dam once the project is complete will offset the payments to NYPA for the debt. Village officials are hoping to see a surplus of revenue from the East Dam project from the power generated there, even after paying off the debt for the rehab project.

In contrast to the work at the East Dam, the two turbines at the West Dam have both been problematic over the course of the last year and could require major overhaul. The village trustees and Thompson at previous board meetings have discussed options for the facility moving forward.

At the Nov. 16 meeting the village board approved a change order request for the general construction contract with Eaton Corp./New York Power Authority for the East Dam project.

The change order request totaled $297,777, which includes:

• $48,311 for replacement of a hydraulic unit;

• $8,465 for a new control for a cooling water line;

• $53,119 for a trash rack repair;

• $166,969 for a trash rake repair;

• $4,683 for an HP-1 Panel replacement; and

• $16,230 for replacement of anti-rotation plates.

The funds remaining in the village’s contingency account for the project total $81,913.27.

According to the resolution approved by the village board, the change order will be covered by those contingency funds along with construction financing provided by the New York Power Authority.