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Difficult Conditions Make for a Challenging Rehabilitation of a Small Hydroelectric Plant
The Noone Falls Mill Dam on the Contoocock River in Peterborough, New Hampshire.
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Hydro Leader: Please tell us about your backgrounds and how you came to be in your current positions.
26 | HYDRO LEADER | February 2021
Marty Greco: I am an industrial electrical construction contractor and own a utility relay protection engineering group. In addition to the Noone Falls Mill hydro project, we own three additional hydroelectric projects in the state of New Hampshire. We’ve owned hydroelectric projects for around 10 years and have had decent success. The State of New Hampshire; the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC); our electric utility, Eversource NH; and the community of Peterborough, New Hampshire, have all been extremely supportive. Paul Becht: I’m a registered professional engineer. I have been with the H.L. Turner Group of Concord, New Hampshire, for 20 years. The Turner Group has a structural hydroleadermagazine.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MARTY GRECO.
he Noone Falls Mill hydroelectric project, located in Peterborough, New Hampshire, was in need of an upgrade. Marty Greco, its new owner, replaced its generators, its electrical switchgear, and its turbine units. The penstock, however, posed additional challenges. Dating back more than a century, the penstock ran under a road, along the foundation of a restaurant, and under the restaurant’s deck, making excavation impractical. In this interview, we speak with Mr. Greco and with Paul Becht, a principal and the vice president of structural engineering at the H.L. Turner Group, about how they addressed and successfully solved this challenging problem.
