The New York Power Authority has passed the halfway point in a $281 million, 16-unit life extension and modernization program at its 912-MW St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project.
NYPA announced Nov. 19 it returned the ninth turbine-generator to service on Oct. 31. Work on the refurbished unit included replacement of an Allis Chalmers turbine with a new turbine. NYPA previously overhauled eight turbine-generators, each of those with turbines originally manufactured by Baldwin Lima Hamilton, the other company that provided turbines to the project (No. 2000).
NYPA began the program to replace or renovate the major generating equipment in the powerhouse of the St. Lawrence-FDR project’s Robert Moses Power Dam in 1998. The program’s scheduled completion date is 2013. The first new turbine was delivered in 2001 and went into service in April 2002.
All turbine-generators were original machines dating back to St. Lawerence-FDR’s first commercial power in 1958. Alstom USA is providing replacement turbines for all 16 of the units under contract to NYPA. In September, NYPA trustees authorized issuance of revenue bonds to help finance the cost of the program. (HNN 9/28/07)
The life extension and modernization program for the next Allis Chalmers unit is scheduled to be carried out over a seven-month outage that began earlier in November. A reduction in work time, from nine months to seven months for the unit, reflects efficiencies learned during work on the initial Allis Chalmers unit, NYPA said.
The replacement turbines feature a more efficient shape, so each refurbished unit will use less water to generate the same amount of power. Also, the use of stainless steel, rather than carbon steel, makes the new turbines more resistant to wear and will reduce maintenance, contributing to extending the life of the project, NYPA said.
