Hydro Leader September 2020

Leader ydro H VOLUME 1 ISSUE 1

Darvin Fales of Columbia Basin Hydropower: Prospects for the Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project

SEPTEMBER 2020

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Hydro Leader Hydro Leader is published 10 times a year with combined issues for July/August and November/December by

an American company established in 2009.

6

Darvin Fales of Columbia Basin Hydropower: Prospects for the Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project

Contents

September 2020 Volume 1, Issue 1 5 W elcome to Hydro Leader

By Kris Polly

22 G arney’s Major Penstock Projects

6 Darvin

Fales of Columbia Basin Hydropower: Prospects for the Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project

28 V oith Hydro’s Expertise on Pumped Storage Projects

10 Kleinschmidt

Associates: Hydro Engineering Consulting Specialists 14 H DR’s Work on Major Hydropower and Pumped Storage Projects Across the Nation

THE INNOVATORS 34 NuSTREEM: Bringing Aerospace Ingenuity to the Hydropower Industry HYDRO LAW 36 2 020 Mid-Year Hydropower Update

By Morgan Gerard, Elizabeth McCormick, and Chuck Sensiba

Coming soon in Hydro Leader October: Sharon Powers, Executive Director, USSD November/December: Leslie James, Executive Director, CREDA Do you have a story idea for an upcoming issue? Contact our editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

4 | HYDRO LEADER | September 2020

SUBMISSIONS: Hydro Leader welcomes manuscript, photography, and art submissions. However, the right to edit or deny publishing submissions is reserved. Submissions are returned only upon request. For more information, please contact our office at (202) 698-0690 or hydro.leader@waterstrategies.com.

ADVERTISING: Hydro Leader accepts half-page and full-page ads. For more information on rates and placement, please contact Kris Polly at (703) 517-3962 or hydro.leader@waterstrategies.com.

CIRCULATION: Hydro Leader is distributed to irrigation district managers and boards of directors in the 17 western states, Bureau of Reclamation officials, members of Congress and committee staff, and advertising sponsors. For address corrections or additions, or if you would prefer to receive Hydro Leader in electronic form, please contact our managing editor, Joshua Dill, at joshua.dill@waterstrategies.com.

Copyright © 2019 Water Strategies LLC. Hydro Leader relies on the excellent contributions of a variety of natural resources professionals who provide content for the magazine. However, the views and opinions expressed by these contributors are solely those of the original contributor and do not necessarily represent or reflect the policies or positions of Hydro Leader magazine, its editors, or Water Strategies LLC. The acceptance and use of advertisements in Hydro Leader do not constitute a representation or warranty by Water Strategies LLC or Hydro Leader magazine regarding the products, services, claims, or companies advertised.

hydroleadermagazine.com hydro_leadr

COVER PHOTO:

Darvin Fales, Secretary-Manager, Columbia Basin Hydropower.

Photo courtesy of Columbia Basin Hydropower.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF COLUMBIA BASIN HYDROPOWER.

18 M avel: Manufacturing Turbines and Looking Toward 2050

BUSINESS LEADER 30 W orthington Products: A Worldwide Leader in Waterway Barrier Technology

STAFF: Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief Joshua Dill, Managing Editor Tyler Young, Writer Stephanie Biddle, Graphic Designer Eliza Moreno, Web Designer Milo Schmitt, Media Intern Caroline Polly, Production Assistant

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Welcome to Hydro Leader

By Kris Polly

T

he hydropower industry works on an epic scale. It tames the elemental forces of land and water to turn mountains, valleys, and lakes into power generators.

From the Hoover Dam to Grand Coulee, the immenseearly20th-century hydroelectric dams that still power the West are familiar images. But hydropower goes beyond vast lakes and New Deal–era monuments. Hydropower is modern, flexible, and environmentally friendly. It produces carbon-neutral energy and, through pumped storage facilities, also aids in integrating wind and solar power into the energy grid. Hydropower generators of various sizes and head requirements allow users to take advantage of natural and artificial waterways and bodies of all kinds. For all these reasons, Water Strategies is launching its newest magazine, Hydro Leader.

I think you will agree that our first set of interviewees is impressive. Our inaugural cover story features Darvin Fales of Columbia Basin Hydropower, who speaks with us about the planned Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project, which will use two existing lakes, including the one behind Grand Coulee Dam, to create a liquid battery with a potential capacity as high as 1,000 megawatts. We also speak with Kelly Larimer of Kleinschmidt Associates, which is serving as the owners’ engineer for and leading the regulatory and environmental studies components of the Banks Lake project.

The rest of our stories are no less impressive. Rick Miller goes into detail about HDR’s major hydropower practice.

Jeanne Hilsinger tells us about the capabilities of Czech

turbine manufacturer Mavel. Matt Foster speaks with us about construction firm Garney’s impressive penstock projects, including one in which it winched an excavator down the face of a mountain to dig a trench (and to prove it, we include pictures). Dr. Klaus Krüger of Voith Hydro about his research into the respective costs of pumped storage and battery storage installations In our Business Leader section, Paul Meeks of Worthington Products tells us about his exciting personal history with the hydropower industry and explains why his company is much more than its most famous product, the molded plastic TUFFBOOM barrier. In The Innovators, Juliann Blanford introduces NuSTREEM, which builds modular low-head small hydro machines. Finally, we feature a Hydro Law update on hydropower regulation from our friends at law firm Troutman Sanders.

We have much more to share in the coming months. The hydropower industry is dynamic and impressive, and we could not be more excited about launching a new magazine to tell its stories. Welcome to Hydro Leader! H Kris Polly is the editor-in-chief of Hydro Leader magazine and the president and CEO of Water Strategies LLC, a government relations firm he began in February 2009 for the purpose of representing and guiding water, power, and agricultural entities in their dealings with Congress, the Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal government agencies. He may be contacted at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

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Darvin Fales of Columbia Basin Hydropower: Prospects for the Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project

A 3-D rendering of the underground powerhouse of the proposed Banks Lake Project.

C

olumbia Basin Hydropower was established in the 1980s to allow the three Columbia Basin Project irrigation districts to develop hydroelectric power stations on their facilities.

Today, its seven generating stations have a nameplate capacity of 146 megawatts (MW). In addition to maintaining and operating its existing facilities, Columbia Basin Hydropower is working to build an immense pumped storage project at Banks Lake—in effect, a huge liquid battery that would allow the Pacific Northwest as a whole to make more efficient use of the electrical power it generates.

In this interview, Columbia Basin Hydropower Secretary-Manager Darvin Fales speaks with Hydro Leader about the proposed project and the complexities of the federal permitting process.

Darvin Fales: My career on the Columbia Basin Project started in 1985. I graduated from the University of

6 | HYDRO LEADER | September 2020

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF KLEINSCHMIDT.

Hydro Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position at Columbia Basin Hydropower.

Wyoming as an engineer, and my first job was district engineer at the South Columbia Basin Irrigation District (SCBID) in Pasco, Washington. During my 18 years at the SCBID, I was promoted to chief engineer and assistant manager. In 2002–2003, I went through the AgForestry Leadership Program as part of class 24. In 2004, I was offered the secretary-manager position at the Quincy– Columbia Basin Irrigation District (QCBID) in Quincy, Washington. I was the manager there for 15 years. One year ago, I accepted the position of secretary-manager of Columbia Basin Hydropower.

In my current position, I report to a six-member board of directors. My responsibility is primarily to implement the board’s policies and directives in the administration and management of seven hydroelectric projects. My duties also include developing asset management plans for the plants and transmission lines; developing the yearly budget; carrying out contract negotiations; negotiating power-purchase contracts; and negotiating contracts

ADVERTISEMENT with our operators, who belong to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Then there is the dayto-day operations and maintenance work that comes with operating seven generating plants. With the retirement of Tim Culbertson, the previous project development manager, I picked up the future development portion of the job as well. Now I’m overseeing the development of small hydro projects as well as that of a large hydro project, the Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project.

Hydro Leader: Please tell us about the history of Columbia Basin Hydropower.

Darvin Fales: The Columbia Basin Project comprises three irrigation districts: The SCBID, the QCBID, and the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District. In 1980, the three districts made an agreement that provided for their cooperation in the development, operation, maintenance, and ownership of any hydro generation facilities that might be developed on their irrigation delivery systems. Later that year, the districts secured the passage of state legislation that authorized irrigation districts to develop hydropower on irrigation systems. In 1982, Columbia Basin Hydropower was created, originally under the name Grand Coulee Project Hydroelectric Authority (it acquired its current name in 2015). From 1980 to 1987 the districts engaged in developing seven hydro sites. These sites are located across the project, from Coulee City, which is up north on the south end of Banks Lake, all the way down south of Pasco, Washington. These seven plants range in output from 2.2 MW to 92 MW and today have a total nameplate capacity of 146 MW. Hydro Leader: Please tell us about the proposed Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project.

Darvin Fales: The Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project is proposed to be built between two existing reservoirs: Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake, which is behind Grand Coulee Dam, and Banks Lake. The proposed size of the project

will be determined in collaboration with potential offtakers to meet the needs of the region. We expect the completed project to be within the range of 500–1,000 MW. The concept of a pumped storage project is relatively simple. It uses two reservoirs—an upper one and a lower one—to transfer and store water that can then be used to generate electricity at the times when it is most needed.

When excess energy is being produced by wind or solar facilities, it can be used to pump water from the lower reservoir to the upper reservoir at relatively low costs.

During times of higher power demand, water is sent back down to the lower reservoir, generating electricity. The proposed location is ideal for this kind of facility. The two large reservoirs already exist, so we don’t have to build any new dams or reservoirs. That’s a big advantage over most proposed pumped storage projects.

Hydro Leader: How would this project bring balance to the region?

Darvin Fales: Last year, the Washington State Legislature passed the Clean Energy Transformation Act, known as CETA, which commits the state of Washington to an electrical supply that is 80 percent free of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and 100 percent free of greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. To achieve that, we will have to retire multiple existing coal- and gas-fired power plants. Coal- and gas-fired electrical generation units are reliable, and as they’re phased out and taken offline, they will have to be replaced by other reliable sources. Hydropower is clean and reliable, so many power utilities are looking at it as a replacement for lost capacity. Batteries are another option for replacing these power sources, but at this point, hydropower typically has a higher capacity and much longer operational life than batteries do. Other large-scale renewables are wind and solar, which are efficient at producing energy but provide little firm capacity to the system.

Hydro Leader: What is the estimated cost of the Banks Lake Project, and how long is construction expected to take?

A cross-section of the proposed Banks Lake Project.

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September 2020 | HYDRO LEADER

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ADVERTISEMENT Darvin Fales: The final cost will depend on what the nameplate capacity is going to be. There is a big difference between the costs of a 500 MW station and a 1,000 MW station. In any case, it’s going to be an expensive project, probably north of a billion dollars. The amount of time required for construction will depend largely on the geophysical conditions that we find upon further investigation. Tunnels will need to be bored through basalt and granite, and there are a lot of variables that could affect how long that will take. Our current aim is to have the plant ready for commercial generation in 2026 or 2027, which would line up with the phasing out of the coal plants.

Hydro Leader: What is the current status of the project?

8 | HYDRO LEADER | September 2020

Hydro Leader: What is your message to Congress and potential partners in your project?

Darvin Fales: Everybody needs electricity, which means they need a reliable electrical power source. The grid here in the Northwest is going to be in much need of this resource, and it may benefit regions as far south as California. The Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project is a great and worthy project that is attracting a lot of support. Our request to Congress is to get us into a single application process and a single licensing process.

That would represent a significant improvement in the financial outlook for this project and help us find a partner.

To potential partners, I would say that our engineering team has done a lot of work over the last 5–6 years on operational modeling, design, and cost estimates that prove that this is a worthy project.

Hydro Leader: What are Columbia Basin Hydropower’s other top issues and projects?

Darvin Fales: As with everybody else in the irrigation and electrical fields, repairing and modernizing aging infrastructure is our number 1 issue. The modernization of our hydro generating plants will require millions of dollars.

The FERC licenses for our existing assets have a 50‑year term and our power purchase contracts have a 40‑year term. The renegotiation of our power purchase contracts will begin soon. Our first plant went into commercial generation in 1982, so our contract needs to be renewed in 2022. When it comes to renewing our FERC licenses, there is a further issue. Reclamation has jurisdiction over the authorization of all hydropower development on Reclamation-owned facilities, which it manages through the LOPP program. We need to decide whether we’re going to pursue FERC relicensing for our seven small plants as we’ve done in the past or whether we are going to shift them over to Reclamation’s LOPP. FERC is part of the U.S. Department of Energy, while Reclamation is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The irrigation districts, which are the owners of these projects, are regulated by Interior, so it may make sense to shift all our existing licenses over to leases with Reclamation. H

Darvin Fales is the secretary-manager of Columbia Basin Hydropower. He can be contacted at dfales@cbhydropower.org.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF COLUMBIA BASIN HYDROPOWER.

Darvin Fales: This project was conceived by Ron Rodewald, who preceded Tim Culbertson as Columbia Basin Hydropower’s secretary-manager. When Tim Culbertson came on as secretary-manager in 2014, he started getting things lined up for this project. He brought together engineers, financial advisors, and potential power purchasers.

When I came in, his work came together and it started to pick up speed. We’re continuing to work with our consultants, our engineering firms, our financial advisors, our legal counsel, our stakeholders, and all the government agencies that are involved to get us to a point where we can get our federal license and a lease. Essentially, we’re working toward a 30 percent design in engineering. We are also working through all our regulatory and environmental compliance processes and are actively seeking investors to partner in this project.

We’re working to get a lease of power privilege (LOPP) from the Bureau of Reclamation and will submit our application shortly. If we’re successful, we will receive our preliminary lease in January 2021. At this time, we also need a license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). We need both a lease and a license because while the two reservoirs are both Reclamation reservoirs, Reclamation has only authorized the power development of Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake at this point, not Banks Lake, and FERC has authority over the north dam portion of Banks Lake. A LOPP with Reclamation lasts 40 years, while a FERC license can be issued for up to 50 years. FERC is willing to shorten its term to 40 years so that we can put our regulatory requirements on a single timeline. That said, we have been working with Congress on a nonpartisan bill that would give authority over both dams and reservoirs to Reclamation, eliminating the need for a second process with FERC and all the time and money it would require. However, Congress has been tied up with a number of other issues.

While we have our amendments in both the Senate and the House of Representatives ready to go, we haven’t been successful in getting them attached to bills that could

move them through. We’re hopeful that our bill will be picked up by the Senate in its upcoming energy bill.

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Kleinschmidt Associates: Hydro Engineering Consulting Specialists

The Deschutes Valley Water District’s Opal Springs Fish Passage Project in Crooked River, Oregon. Kleinschmidt acted as the owner’s representative for regulatory and engineering matters and represented the client in raising outside funding for construction.

K

Hydro Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

10 | HYDRO LEADER | September 2020

Kelly Larimer: I’m currently the vice president and director of science, regulatory, and modeling and GIS technologies at Kleinschmidt Associates. I’m from the West Coast, primarily Washington State. I went to Central Washington University and earned a master of science degree in resources and environmental management. I’ve worked in the Columbia River basin for the majority of my career, conducting riverine studies with Central Washington University and the University of Montana and projects with tribal, county, and state governments. In addition, I worked for 6½ years with the Grant Public Utility District as the lands and recreation resources manager, focusing on hydroelectric license compliance activities. Then I joined Kleinschmidt Associates, where I’ve worked for the past 6½ years. My position involves the oversight of the company’s regulatory, environmental, hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, and civil and restoration engineering groups, as well as our GIS and hydroleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF KLEINSCHMIDT.

leinschmidt Associates is one of a few engineering consulting firms in North America that specializes in hydropower, and it has been doing so for more than 50 years. Its expertise is in engineering, regulatory, and environmental solutions that help lower costs, shorten schedules, and enhance long-term regulatory relationships. In particular, Kleinschmidt works on Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) licensing efforts for some of the largest pumped storage hydroelectric installations in the country, including the proposed Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project, which is planned to be built near Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State. In this interview, Kelly Larimer, Kleinschmidt’s vice president and director of science, regulatory, and modeling and GIS technologies, tells Hydro Leader about the firm’s specialized focus and current work.

ADVERTISEMENT remote sensing services. We have quite a spread of expertise, and I have counterparts within the company who oversee hydro engineering services and project management.

Hydro Leader: Please tell our readers about your work on the proposed Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project in Washington State.

Hydro Leader: How many people are employed by Kleinschmidt, and of those, how many are on your team?

Kelly Larimer: Kleinschmidt has been working with Columbia Basin Hydropower to advance the Banks Lake Project since 2014. Our role is to serve as the owner's engineer and to lead the regulatory and environmental studies components of the project. We’ve handled all the preliminary due diligence related to operational, energy, and financial modeling. We’ve also done some conceptual engineering design and worked on the advancement of the design over the years. Specifically, we initiated the FERC licensing process and the Bureau of Reclamation’s lease of power privilege regulatory process. Right now, the project straddles two federal jurisdictions, which is why both of those processes are necessary. Along the way in 2019, the Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA) was passed in Washington State. CETA requires that electric utilities that serve load in Washington acquire significant amounts of new clean energy resources, such as wind and solar, by 2040.

This development has benefited the project’s economics, since the project offers a new large-scale renewable source of firm capacity. In response, we have adjusted our marketing and engaged with potential investors. One of our major roles has been to help put all the puzzle pieces on the table and to help Columbia Basin Hydropower develop a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities and challenges of this substantial project. We have worked with the agency’s leadership to identify the major development risks and cost drivers associated with the project, which has advanced the conceptual design, geophysical and environmental reviews, transmission studies, and other preliminary studies that need to happen in a large-scale study planning effort like this one.

Kelly Larimer: In total, Kleinschmidt employs around 150 people in 10 offices: 8 in the United States and 2 in Canada. The number of employees under my areas of oversight fluctuates seasonally, but right now, there are around 60 in my division, including temporary staff.

Hydro Leader: What cities are the offices located in?

Kelly Larimer: In the United States, we have offices in Birmingham, Alabama; Essex, Connecticut; Falmouth, Maine; Pittsfield, Maine; Portland, Oregon; Strasburg, Pennsylvania; Lexington, South Carolina; and Madison, Wisconsin. In Canada, we have offices in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Peterborough, Ontario.

Hydro Leader: Tell us about the history of the company.

Kelly Larimer: Kleinschmidt’s history dates back to the early 1960s, when it was founded by an engineer named Dr. Kleinschmidt in Pittsfield, Maine. The company emerged out of the pulp and paper industry and quickly shifted its focus to hydropower, initially providing primarily engineering support. Over the years, and particularly in the 1980s, the company began diversifying into FERC relicensing and environmental studies. For most of its history, the company was on a somewhat conservative and organic growth trajectory based around expanding geographically to provide local service to our clients. Over the last couple of years, we have added a substantial number of staff to respond to the major FERC relicensing study work that has recently emerged and to work on other renewable energy and water resources projects.

As a result, today we have almost 40 people dedicated to FERC relicensing and compliance work alone. We have significant resources in dam safety, engineering design and analysis, operations and maintenance, and a variety of other support activities associated with our engineering team. This includes new project design as well as retrofits for existing facilities. We consider ourselves about as close to a full-service hydro consulting firm as exists in today’s market.

Kleinschmidt served as the relicensing consultant for the Yards Creek Pumped Storage Project in Blairstown, New Jersey, as well as providing design, engineering, and compliance services.

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September 2020 | HYDRO LEADER

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ADVERTISEMENT Hydro Leader: Would you describe the Banks Lake Pumped Storage Project in general terms?

Kelly Larimer: The project is planned to be located near the city of Grand Coulee, Washington, just above Grand Coulee Dam. A pumped storage project involves an upper and lower reservoir, between which water can be pumped in order to store or generate energy. The lower intake and reservoir for the project would be Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake, which lies behind Grand Coulee Dam, and the upper lake intake would be on Banks Lake, which is the storage reservoir for the Columbia Basin Project. There is an existing pumped storage project, the John W. Keys Pumping Plant, which is owned and operated by Reclamation in collaboration with the Bonneville Power Administration. The plant’s primary purpose is to pump water into the irrigation system to ensure that the three Columbia Basin Project irrigation districts have their water rights fulfilled. Our project would be a complementary pumped storage project that could operate in conjunction with the Keys plant in order to assist Reclamation in meeting its water delivery obligations to Columbia Basin Project irrigators. It would also benefit the Pacific Northwest by providing an additional source of firm capacity and ancillary services and flexibility to help manage the region’s existing fleet of intermittent renewable energy resources as well as new resources that are expected to be developed over the next two decades. The Banks Lake Project is planned to be between 500 and 1,000 megawatts (MW)— we’re in the process of zeroing in on what the final capacity will be. We will then continue our design, permitting, and environmental review program around that specification.

Hydro Leader: What is the elevation difference or lift of the project?

Kelly Larimer: The lift is about 300 feet. It’s a low-head pumped hydro project, similar in head to the Ludington Pumped Storage Project in Michigan, though that project is 1,872 MW. Kleinschmidt worked on the Ludington Project’s relicensing, and we continue to do studies and some engineering support on that project, which went online in 1973.

Hydro Leader: How many pumped storage projects has Kleinschmidt worked on?

12 | HYDRO LEADER | September 2020

Hydro Leader: What should every hydro owner know about Kleinschmidt?

Kelly Larimer: Kleinschmidt is one of the only firms in the country that specializes in all aspects of hydroelectric projects, including regulatory support, environmental services, hydro engineering, new design services, and valuations. We are recognized throughout the industry as a specialized firm whose niche is hydroelectric utility services.

We’re proud of that. We do other renewable energy services and related government and water resource projects as well, but hydro is our bread and butter.

Beyond our technical capacities and the work we do, our strengths include the culture of the firm; the client relationships we build and maintain; and our close collaboration with resource and regulatory agencies, other consulting firms, and industry vendors. While we provide many service offerings, we realize that we don’t know everything. We pride ourselves on working to understand our clients’ needs and collaborating to bring practical solutions to complex projects. We’re proud to work on meaningful projects and to be part of the hydro industry and the renewable energy environment. H Kelly Larimer is the vice president and director of science, regulatory, and modeling and GIS technologies for Kleinschmidt Associates. She can be reached at kelly.larimer@kleinschmidtgroup.com.

For more on Kleinschmidt Associates, visit www.kleinschmidtgroup.com. hydroleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF KLEINSCHMIDT.

Kelly Larimer: We’ve worked on FERC relicensing for 11 different pumped storage projects, most recently the one in Bath County, Virginia, which is actually the country’s largest pumped storage project. It has a 4,000 MW capacity.

We’ve done engineering support and design for several other projects, including Blenheim-Gilboa (New York), Muddy Run (Pennsylvania), Northfield Mountain (Massachusetts), Rocky River (Connecticut), and Yards Creek (New Jersey), and we have recently assisted with conceptual design on four smaller pumped storage projects, each with a capacity under 20 MW.

Kleinschmidt was retained to conduct a new redevelopment study and assist with all aspects of the final engineering design processes and related environmental studies for the Holtwood Hydro Redevelopment in Lancaster and York Counties, Pennsylvania.

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HDR’s Work on Major Hydropower and Pumped Storage Projects Across the Nation

An artist’s rendering of a pumped storage project.

H

DR is an engineering, architectural, environmental, and construction services consulting firm that has worked on major infrastructure projects around the world. Its hydropower practice brings together 300 specialists working across North America on major conventional hydroelectric and pumped storage projects. In this interview, Rick Miller, HDR’s senior vice president for hydropower services and a recipient of the hydropower industry’s Kenneth Henwood Award, recognizing his lifetime of industry contributions and passion for hydropower, tells Hydro Leader about the practice’s current projects and current trends in the hydropower industry.

Hydro Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

14 | HYDRO LEADER | September 2020

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PHOTO COURTESY OF HDR.

Rick Miller: I am proud to lead the hydropower and pumped storage practice for HDR. I’ve been in the hydropower business for a little over 40 years. I have a degree in civil engineering from Auburn University and worked nights and weekends to receive my master’s degree from the University of South Carolina while working full time at Duke Energy, which was then called Duke Power.

I got involved with hydropower engineering through my work at Duke Power in the late 1970s and then moved on

to hydropower operations, grid integration, and dam safety.

I eventually served in an asset management operations role, during which time I managed 2,000 megawatts (MW) of pumped storage capacity and six conventional stations.

These ranged from 1970s-era facilities with several hundred MW of capacity to small, 1913‑vintage, 1 MW facilities that we lovingly referred to as coffee grinders, and which are still up and running today. In 1991, I was the operations leader for Duke Power when the Bad Creek Pumped Storage Project, the second-to-last major pumped storage project developed in the United States, was commissioned.

Then I moved back to Charlotte, North Carolina, to help plan and implement the modernization of Duke Power’s conventional hydropower fleet in the Carolinas.

My colleagues and I successfully accomplished that task over a 15‑year period at a cost of more than $350 million.

When Duke Energy acquired assets in South America in 1999, I became the director of operations in Brazil, where it had several thousand MW of conventional hydropower.

I lived there for 3½ years, handling all the operations, engineering, health and safety issues, and integration with the national grid operator, which is located in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia.

ADVERTISEMENT Through some buyouts and transitions with Duke Energy and its unregulated subsidiaries, I left in 2003 to help start up a new company. I worked in a support role with John Devine, Jim Lynch, John Tarbell, and Ed Luttrell to create the framework of Devine Tarbell & Associates. It was an employee-owned hydropower consulting firm for engineering, regulatory, and environmental services—the proverbial three-legged stool business model, with all the services the nonfederal owner of a hydropower asset needs.

It was incredibly exciting to participate in the management buyout of a small but focused team concentrating on the hydropower industry and to build a business that provided jobs, opportunities, and a bright future for the staff, of whom there were 120 when we started.

I rose to become the CEO of the firm, and we decided to join HDR in December 2008. We’ve been a part of HDR now for over 10 years. It’s been a great fit: We brought our hydropower practice to HDR, while HDR has brought broader capabilities to us with regard to wind and solar energy, power delivery, and thermal power. Joining HDR also allowed us access to an integrated power program that also leverages rightof-way and strategic communications capabilities.

I was also president of the National Hydropower Association for a 15‑month period in 2008–2009. I walked the halls of Congress and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) every 3 weeks, trying to promote a rational approach to energy policy for our nation and to advocate for a proven carbon-free energy technology.

Hydro Leader: Please tell us about HDR’s hydropower practice and its history.

Rick Miller: We offer the full range of engineering, environmental sciences, and regulatory services in our core offices across the United States. This includes civil, structural, hydromechanical, electrical, geotechnical, hydraulics, and hydrology engineering. Hydroelectric units are low-speed, high-mass machines with distinctive characteristics and operational challenges different from those of your typical steam- or gas-fired turbine. Our teams focus on FERC’s approach to dam safety, and we work closely with clients to develop mechanisms that track and ensure strict adherence to all dam safety compliance requirements as outlined in FERC-issued project license articles and other documents. We also have the environmental expertise, covering a wide range of disciplines, to meet all planning, permitting, and resource analysis needs. Our team includes aquatics, fisheries, terrestrial, and wildlife biologists who are integrated with our engineers during relicensings, feasibility studies, and other efforts to analyze the resource effects of a hydropower project. Our practice also has a regulatory specialty capability, with a focus on helping our clients with licensing and permitting strategies and understanding the local and regional complexities of issues from a resource perspective, hydroleadermagazine.com

whether it be fish passage in the Northwest, eel passage in New England, or dissolved oxygen in the Southeast.

We have core offices in all quadrants of the country.

In the Northeast (Portland, Maine, and Syracuse, New York), we focus on the FERC relicensing of conventional and pumped storage projects and engineering and dam safety studies, primarily with smaller, older conventional stations; this is where we have a core competency in operations modeling that supports our national practice.

Our Southeast team is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and has strengths in civil/structural and geotechnical engineering. It also has turbine and mechanical balanceof-plant systems specialists in addition to regulatory and environmental scientists. We have a California team in Sacramento that offers the full range of services to clients in the power and irrigation sectors. Our Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, offices support the federal hydropower fleet and offer specialty services in hydraulic engineering, fisheries science, engineering, and regulatory strategies. We also have hydrogenerator and unit uprate subject-matter experts in Toronto, Canada.

Most recently, we’ve expanded our footprint in the upper Midwest with a key water resources/civil works hire in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Our pumped storage practice has centers of excellence in Charlotte, Seattle, and Minneapolis. Our asset management team is based in the Pacific Northwest and also has specialists in each office to support modernization planning and strategies for reinvesting in these aging but highly valued assets.

HDR not only supports clients with existing hydropower fleets but also works across the country to help expand their portfolios of pumped storage, which is the largest proven grid-scale storage technology in the world.

We’re supporting teams from firms like Dominion Energy, which is working to advance its project in southwestern Virginia, or developers in the West that are trying to participate in the volatile energy markets by providing the storage necessary to integrate wind and solar power while preserving a stable, reliable grid.

Hydro Leader: Please tell us more about some of your current pumped storage projects.

Rick Miller: A number of owner-operators are recognizing that they need greater flexibility in their energy portfolios.

We are seeing a shift from a developer-driven market to a market in which existing owner-operators are moving in a structured, stepwise manner through the lengthy process of licensing, concept studies, prefeasibility studies, and preliminary engineering. For example, we have been assisting Dominion Energy with its Tazewell Hybrid Energy Center Pumped Storage Project for about 3 years. We started by helping identify potential sites in southwestern Virginia; a site in Tazewell County was ultimately selected by Dominion, and a preliminary permit September 2020 | HYDRO LEADER

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ADVERTISEMENT was filed. It is exciting to help advance the preliminary engineering for a pumped-storage project that stands to have a tremendous positive effect on economic development and to sustainably support the grid.

We’re also supporting the Goldendale Pumped Storage Project, located in the Columbia Gorge in Washington State, a closed loop project which is being developed by Klickitat Public Utility District in collaboration with National Grid and Rye Development and is currently in the regulatory and preliminary engineering phases.

Our practice has also been assisting clients with modernizing their existing fleets. We’ve been supporting Southern Company (both Alabama Power and Georgia Power), Tacoma Power, and other clients in North America with long-term asset management and capital investment planning, similar to the aforementioned Duke Power fleetwide modernization that occurred from 1993 to 2007.

Hydro Leader: What trends and new technologies do you see in the industry?

16 | HYDRO LEADER | September 2020

Hydro Leader: What should every entity that has a hydropower facility or that is considering a hydropower project know about HDR? Rick Miller: The HDR team has been committed to hydropower for over 40 years, and we’re in it for the long haul, just like our clients. We provide the full range of services for the life cycle of asset ownership, including engineering, regulatory support, dam safety, and environmental sciences. HDR is the one-stop shop for all these services. We have a great team and excellent leadership across the country. We care about our clients, and we care about each other. It’s a remarkable team to be a part of, and I’m honored to be have the opportunity to lead it. H

Rick Miller is HDR’s senior vice president for hydropower and pumped storage services. Rick can be contacted at Rick.Miller@hdrinc.com or (704) 248‑3686.

For more on HDR’s hydropower services and experience, visit www.hdrinc.com/markets/ power-energy/hydropower.

hydroleadermagazine.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF HDR.

Rick Miller: The focus on a low-carbon energy future is creating renewed interest in hydropower and in the value of existing assets. When you include the federal fleet, hydropower in the United States represents approximately 100 gigawatts (GW) of reliable, flexible, low- or zerocarbon energy generation. That 100 or more GW of installed assets includes 22 GW of pumped storage, which enables the integration of greater amounts of wind and solar power into the grid. Today, there is greater interest in getting away from carbon, decommissioning coal, and moving to a low-carbon future (or a zero-carbon future, in some states); the debate is over whether natural gas is going to be a bridging strategy or not.

We’re also seeing technologies designed to mitigate the effects of existing hydropower assets. For example, we are assisting clients with dissolved oxygen mitigation strategies, which were developed by the Tennessee Valley Authority more than 20 years ago to introduce air into the discharge from a turbine and improve fishery water quality. There are also improvements in fishery habitat, including biologically smarter, nature-like fishways for fish passage. As a result of the ongoing increase in relicensing activities, we’re seeing a lot of attention in the industry in modernizing fleets for a more sustainable future and addressing some of the challenges inadvertently created by projects from the 1950s and 1960s.

We are also seeing advancements in pumped storage technology, including variable-speed capability, which was originally developed in Japan and applied in Asia and in select projects in Europe. Variable-speed technology offers the ability to provide frequency regulation and ramping services to the grid when operators are pumping or absorbing excess electrons in the pump mode. That’s exactly what I think California and other regions with

significant solar penetration need. They have periods of excess energy production from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and still need frequency regulation and load-following capability. For typical technologies like a combustion turbine to provide that essential reliability service, they have to be generating and putting electrons on the grid, which inadvertently contributes to the oversupply of electrons on the grid. A variable-speed pump turbine, on the other hand, can absorb those excess electrons and reallocate them or store them in the form of water so that they can be deployed when demand is at its peak, and it can provide frequency and speed variation while doing so.

Many of the pumped storage projects that are currently in the planning and permitting stages are considered to be closed-loop facilities, defined generally as facilities that cause little to no change to existing surface and groundwater flows because their reservoirs are not situated on natural waterways, lakes, wetlands, or other natural surface water features. This results in minimal effect on surface water resources or aquatic and fisheries habitats.

Another key industry trend is adding power at nonpowered dams, irrigation drops, and diversions. There are over 80,000 dams in this country, but only a little more than 3 percent of them have actual power plants. Adding a powerhouse to an existing dam has its challenges, but it is an attractive prospect, since much of the civil infrastructure already exists and the conversion causes few, if any, incremental environmental effects. It’s a proven technology, but it’s not inexpensive.

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Mavel: Manufacturing Turbines and Looking Toward 2050

A Mavel turbine being installed at the North Bala hydroelectric project in Ontario, Canada.

H

ydropower firm Mavel was one of the first companies to be founded after the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia. Since then, it has grown from a small hydro engineering company to a world leader in hydroelectric turbine manufacturing. With 180 employees, two production facilities, and 100 proprietary turbine designs, it provides customers around the world with water-to-wire equipment packages. In this interview, Jeanne Hilsinger, the executive chairperson of parent company Mavel, a.s., and the president of its Mavel Americas subsidiary tells Hydro Leader about the company's history and its ambitions to help transform the world's energy mix by 2050.

strategy, and today my roles are executive chairperson of the parent company and president of the Mavel Americas, Inc., subsidiary. Mavel is and always has been managed as a partnership. I am one member of the four-person management board. The other three people are members of the company’s founding team. I’m the only partner without a background in engineering. In fact, I am the only person in a management position in the company without a background in engineering. I was trained as a journalist and then earned my master of business administration degree—not the typical background for a leader of an engineering and manufacturing company.

Hydro Leader: Please tell us about your background and your position at Mavel.

Hydro Leader: Please tell us about the company’s history.

18 | HYDRO LEADER | September 2020

Jeanne Hilsinger: Mavel was the 176th company registered under the new commercial code of what was then Czechoslovakia after the 1989 fall of communism in the country. Formally registered in Prague in 1990, Mavel was envisioned by a well-known Czech

hydro professor, Dr. František Čihák.

The professor brought together three of his best students to form Mavel with the goal of commercializing some of his patents. In 1990, Dr. Čihák would not have expected that his efforts would set the groundwork for a global leader in hydroelectric equipment. Necessity, however, is sometimes the mother of invention. Mavel was not able to secure the manufacturing capability it needed to make Dr. Čihák’s products from existing companies, so it secured manufacturing expertise and capability by leasing a portion of a former rail car repair facility in Benešov, a city about 30 minutes southwest of Prague. Eventually, Mavel bought the entire industrial complex and transformed the manufacturing hall into a state-of-the-art, International Organization for Standardization– certified engineering, research, development, and production center.

Simultaneously, Mavel purchased ČKD TurboTechnics, a spinoff of ČKD Blansko Strojírny, which had deep roots in the hydroelectric power business.

The location, near the town of Blansko, hydroleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MAVEL.

Jeanne Hilsinger: I first encountered Mavel in 1993 and joined the company in 1995. I have worked full time for Mavel for the past 25 years. I initially served as the company’s chief financial officer and then as its director of marketing and

The interior of the Štvanice hydroelectric project, located on an island in central Prague in the Czech Republic.

ADVERTISEMENT is the hydro sweet spot of the country and birthplace of the Kaplan turbine. While Mavel was built on the aspirations of entrepreneurs and the ability to design and produce Kaplan turbines for low-head projects, the ČKD TurboTechnics acquisition brought Mavel significant tradition and experience in Francis and Pelton runners for use at higher-head projects.

The ČKD TurboTechnics facility, powered by its own small hydroelectric power plant, is now fully integrated into the Benešov operations. The combination also gave Mavel a strategic advantage. Mavel was the first company with a global reach, a sole focus on small hydro, and the capability to offer its customers the full range of turbines: Kaplan, Francis, Pelton, and modular micro.

Hydro Leader: What would you say is the forte of Mavel’s hydro turbine manufacturing?

Jeanne Hilsinger: Good question. We do manufacture turbines, and I would say that our in-house production capabilities are equal to or better than those of any of our competitors. However, our core business—our forte—is not manufacturing. Our real business is problem solving: finding engineered solutions for hydroelectric power owners and developers. Each hydroelectric power plant is unique, and each hydro project is unique, whether it is the development of a new project or the refurbishment of an existing site.

Every project requires a customized solution.

Our sales managers are engineers. Their job is to ask questions and gather information about the priorities of each customer and the economic, environmental, hydraulic, and structural conditions of the site. Once they understand the priorities and conditions, they pass that information on to the Mavel engineering team. That is where it begins. The team is composed of members of our engineering department, which includes hydraulic, civil, electrical, and mechanical engineers with hundreds of years of combined experience designing hydroelectric power plants around the world. The team’s challenge is to find the equipment solution that will meet the customer’s objectives while successfully adapting to the economic, civil, regulatory, environmental, and hydraulic conditions of the site. With our computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling capacity and fully engaged research and development department, we assume at the beginning that there are no limits and that anything is possible.

Thomas Edison is said to have described his process of exploration as follows: “When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.” Often, our starting point is finding the ways that will not work. This has led to some unusual solutions. On the recent Štvanice hydroelectric project on an island in central Prague, the ultimate solution was found after several early design studies failed. In the end, Mavel selected a solution that reversed the rotational direction of the turbine/generator unit to create a more efficient hydraulic water passage. This resulted in output 25 percent higher than guaranteed. On the new North Bala hydroleadermagazine.com

hydroelectric project in Ontario, Canada, challenged by a severely restricted site and angled intake, the team modeled hundreds of scenarios and went from the initial assumption that the envisioned project couldn’t be done to a finished project meeting the customer’s objectives. Solving problems is something our teams thrive on.

Hydro Leader: Please tell us about Mavel’s low-head hydro business. Is it a major portion of your manufacturing?

Jeanne Hilsinger: While we work on projects from high head to low head, Mavel’s most extensive experience is in low-head projects, and these projects make up more than 50 percent of our project volume. Our location has been advantageous for our low-head business. First, the turbine used for low-head projects is the Kaplan. In 1912, Viktor Kaplan, living in what is now the city of Brno in the Czech Republic, filed a patent for the Kaplan turbine. and the first demonstration installation was in the town of Poděbrady, Czech Republic. The area around Brno and nearby Blansko has remained the center of Kaplan excellence for more than a century. Mavel has been able to build on and continue this engineering excellence.

We first delivered a small, 180‑kilowatt (kW) turbine to Germany in 2004. Unfortunately, the customer fled to Latin America with much of the cash meant for us, but for us the project was a success because Mavel had commissioned its first Kaplan turbine. More than 300 Kaplan turbines later, Mavel manufactures Kaplans with runner diameters of over 5 meters (m), or 16.4 feet, and outputs of up to 10 megawatts (MW). The company has over 100 proprietary designs of Kaplan PIT, Z, S, vertical, and bulb turbines, ranging from three blades to six.

Second, Mavel is lucky to be located in the heart of Europe, where rivers with high water volume and low head are prevalent. This allowed Mavel, early in its history, to become a market leader in low-head installations in the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, and other European countries. All the Kaplan turbines at the 200 sites around the world we have worked on are still in operation and have met or exceeded performance guarantees.

While our location has allowed us to combine expertise with experience, our leadership in low-head Kaplan turbines in our target market is due to innovation. The Kaplan has been around for more than 100 years, but that does not mean that the design work is complete. CFD modeling, new computer numerical control (CNC) machining capabilities, and material developments have opened the door for innovation both in the design and the production of these runners. CFD modeling allows us to optimize the runner blade profile and the overall plant hydraulic design. New multiple-axis CNC machines allow us to transfer the design directly to production and to use new manufacturing procedures. At Mavel, the engineering and production processes are integrated, and each new turbine is an opportunity to improve.

September 2020 | HYDRO LEADER

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ADVERTISEMENT Hydro Leader: What is the range of sizes of the turbines that Mavel manufactures?

Jeanne Hilsinger: It varies by turbine type. Our smallest modular micro turbine in operation, which is in Kyoto, Japan, is only 4 kW, with the upper limits of this line being around 200 kW. The upper limit of the runner diameter of a Kaplan turbine is 5.5 m (18 feet), and the upper limit of its power is around 10 MW. The upper limit of the power of an individual Pelton or Francis machine is around 20 MW. Hydro Leader: What projects does Mavel currently have underway?

Jeanne Hilsinger: As an industry, hydroelectric power is in a better situation than others in this time of COVID‑19.

We are busy. Mavel has more than 20 projects underway around the world, in countries including Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, the United States, and Vietnam.

The projects range in size from 150 kW to 11.5 MW. In North America, we are installing the second of three Kaplan Z turbines at NorthWestern Energy’s Hauser Hydroelectric Plant in Montana; providing a Francis turbine for San Diego County Water Authority; providing two Kaplan PIT turbines for Ontario Power Generation’s Calabogie Generating Station, each of which has a runner diameter of 3.2 m (10.5 feet) and will produce more than 5 MW; and providing a new Kaplan turbine for the City of Nashua, New Hamphsire’s Jackson Mill Hydroelectric Power Plant.

Hydro Leader: How many countries does Mavel have turbines in today?

Jeanne Hilsinger: Forty-four. We are 50 percent American owned and 50 percent Czech owned and consider Europe and America our two home markets. In addition to Europe and the Americas, we are also present in select markets in Asia and Africa.

Hydro Leader: What is the delivery time for a turbine after it is ordered?

Jeanne Hilsinger: That depends on the size and complexity of the project. The general delivery time for our projects, from signing to delivery, is 12–18 months. The schedule is dictated by a combination of what the customer requests and our realistic capabilities. Projects with multiple units can take longer; smaller, single units are faster.

Jeanne Hilsinger: The hydro market is picking up speed and leading the charge toward the 2050 renewable energy mandates. COVID‑19, instead of blocking this trajectory,

20 | HYDRO LEADER | September 2020

Hydro Leader: What is your vision for Mavel over the next decade and beyond?

Jeanne Hilsinger: Mavel’s mission, formulated 25 years ago, is to contribute to the global development of renewable energy resources by providing customers with hydropower technology that combines innovation, quality and value.

Our vision for Mavel is closely tied to our mission. We would like to see hydroelectric power leading the growth of renewables in 10 years’ time. We would like to see Mavel supporting and accelerating that growth in its target markets by providing customers with solutions that continue to combine innovation, quality, and value. H Jeanne Hilsinger is the executive chairperson of Mavel, a.s., and the president of its Mavel Americas subsidiary. She can be contacted at hilsinger@mavel.com.

hydroleadermagazine.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF MAVEL.

Hydro Leader: Where is the hydro market going?

is accelerating it, since recovery efforts focused on infrastructure and renewables are increasing the demand for the expansion of hydroelectric power worldwide.

2050 is a critical year. Policies are in place in almost every region, country, corporation, and institution to promote the growth of renewable energy, and most define their objectives with reference to the year 2050. While wind and solar power are often the focus of these plans, hydroelectric power is always included as well. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development aims for hydroelectric power to double by 2050, the International Renewable Energy Agency calls for 60 percent growth, and the United States–based National Hydro Association also has an objective of 60 percent.

Hydroelectric power has several basic attributes that make it critical in meeting renewable energy objectives. First and most importantly, hydroelectric power plants are built to last. Many of the plants operating in the United States are more than 100 years old and use their original equipment. While I believe other renewable energy resources have an estimated life of 20–30 years, hydroelectric power plants last 50 or even 100 years. This means that hydroelectric power is the only renewable resource of which it can be said that if you invest a dollar today, that investment will easily take you to 2050 and beyond.

Second, hydroelectrically generated power is not expensive. Hydroelectric power has the lowest levelized cost per kilowatt-hour produced of any energy source. If all tax incentives were canceled, hydroelectric power would still be the clear winner.

Finally, with the rapid development of intermittent wind and solar power generation facilities and the slow but steady reduction in fossil fuel resources, the electric grid is going to need more baseload and storage assets to integrate and balance the changing energy mix. Hydro is that baseload and storage resource.

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Garney’s Major Penstock Projects

To bury a pipeline in a mountain slope in Telluride, Colorado, Garney winched an excavator down the face of the slope.

G

arney Construction has worked on several major penstock construction projects across the nation—and difficult ones at that. In one project, the company winched an excavator down a steep Colorado mountain face to dig a trench for a penstock.

In this interview, Matt Foster, Garney’s chief operating officer for western pipe operations, tells Hydro Leader about several of these projects and informs our readers about the unique company culture that motivates Garney’s employee-owners to put their all into these challenging tasks.

Hydro Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

22 | HYDRO LEADER | September 2020

Hydro Leader: Please tell us about Garney as a company.

Matt Foster: In terms of size, our revenue last year was just over $1.1 billion. We are 100 percent employee owned and have 1,550 employee-owners. Having worked for just one company my entire career, I’m often concerned about the risk of looking at things from just one perspective, and yet time and time again, outsiders tell me how special Garney is, which reinforces my belief that we are approaching things from the best perspective possible. I think it’s something about our culture. Once you become an employee-owner, it’s hard to shake that mindset. We hire like-minded people, which is how we maintain our culture year after year. hydroleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GARNEY.

Matt Foster: I started with Garney 27 years ago, in 1993.

I had just graduated from Kansas State University’s construction science program, and I was interviewed by the owner of the company, Charles Garney. He spent the day with me, and I thought that any company whose owner put

that kind of time and effort into interviewing a young new college graduate was the sort of company I wanted to be a part of. Joining Garney turned out to be one of the single best decisions of my life.

ADVERTISEMENT Hydro Leader: Please tell us about some of the work Garney has done in the hydrogeneration sector, particularly involving penstocks.

Matt Foster: I was lucky enough to spend the early part of my career working in Colorado, where we were trying to build up our business presence. We were invited to Durango, Colorado, to meet with Xcel Energy regarding the upgrade of its Tacoma flow line. The first phase of the flow line replacement involved replacing a 64‑inch steel riveted flow line, or penstock, which led from one water source to another and allowed Xcel to create energy at the dam.

The 1,500 feet of pipeline needed to go right under one of the ski lifts at the Purgatory Ski Resort. A large-diameter pipeline project of this nature was right up our alley, and we were ultimately selected to lead it.

While we were there, we learned of another challenging project Xcel was contemplating near Telluride, Colorado. It needed to replace a 30‑inch penstock that hung down the steep face of a mountain. The twist was that because it was on National Park Service property, the replacement pipe had to be buried. Garney was selected for this project, and we dove in and figured out a solution. Our plan involved bolting a winch to the side of the mountain and connecting a standard excavator to it. The excavator would then be winched down the mountainside to dig the pipe trench. Once the trench was dug, we airlifted the pipe in by helicopter, and starting from the bottom, slowly winched the excavator back up, using it to place and cover the pipe. To top it all off, we had seasonal challenges. We couldn’t start the project until Labor Day, and we expected it to take about 2 months, bringing us to the beginning of the winter weather season. We ultimately finished it by Thanksgiving, but it truly represented one of the most challenging projects of my career.

the two pipes coming down the mountain with smallerdiameter steel pipe. We actually set up our staging area in the 20‑foot-diameter tunnel through the mountain, which was dry at the time. We brought all the material in that way, pulling the pipe up from the bottom through the rupture in one of the penstocks and through a hole we cut in the other.

We then welded the pipe as we moved back downward.

Once the pipe was in place, we poured a big thrust block at the bottom. The project was carried out over the course of the winter and was completed in time to protect Xcel’s water rights. It has been operating fine ever since.

Each of these technically challenging projects was the sort of thing a firm might encounter once in a lifetime, and we had the opportunity to handle two of them in succession.

We’ve been doing work for Xcel Energy ever since. Those initiatives also opened doors for us elsewhere around the

Hydro Leader: Were you trenching through solid rock?

Garney works to repair the Shoshone penstock in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado.

Matt Foster: No, but rock was all around the trench site, so rocks were constantly rolling down the mountain as we moved the excavator. It was an unbelievable challenge, but we put a great team together, and Xcel allowed us to use our creativity to solve the problem. Interestingly, as we were completing that project, Xcel had a high-profile failure with its Shoshone penstock in Glenwood Canyon. This is a set of dual penstocks that comes out of a mountain and runs 500 feet down the mountain into the powerhouse. The water would then normally go under Interstate 70 at the point where the Glenwood Canyon bridges are located. The penstocks blew out, flooded the powerhouse, and shot water toward Interstate 70.

Fixing the problem was urgent because Xcel had senior water rights for the Colorado River, and missing a year of water could have placed it in jeopardy. Xcel brought us in to work with its engineering team to develop a solution.

This was another challenging project, involving slip-lining

country. One of the lead engineering firms that had worked with us on those early Xcel projects was bidding on penstock engineering proposals around the country, and I coordinated with it to reach out to companies for which our expertise might be relevant to let them know of our capabilities and interest in bidding on their projects. We were eventually placed on a bidders list for the Upper Peninsula Power Company in Michigan and were successful in winning the McClure Penstock Replacement Project, which involved installing 13,300 feet of 84‑inch pipe. That was a complicated project with large bifurcations, large thrust blocks, and lots of rock. Due to its scale, the installation occurred over two summer construction seasons. The project represented another opportunity for Garney to showcase our expertise, but it also introduced us new experiences, such as working with a waterline and water pressure outside the normal range, dealing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and handling dam safety issues.

hydroleadermagazine.com

September 2020 | HYDRO LEADER

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These two wooden-stave pipelines at the Grandfather Falls Hydro Plant in Irma, Wisconsin, were more sprinkler than pipeline.

Garney replaced them with two pipes, one 156 inches in diameter and the other 132 inches.

A few years ago, the same owner asked us to bid on its Grandfather Falls Hydro Plant Penstock Replacement project located in Wisconsin. This involved replacing two aboveground wood-stave pipelines, which had deteriorated to the point that they were operating more like sprinklers than pipelines! We installed two replacement pipes, one 156 inches in diameter and the other 132 inches. We didn’t excavate, but instead built up and installed the pipe on a pad and then buried it up to the spring line, which is halfway up the pipe.

This involved major concrete work, with logistical challenges at every step. That’s the one thing these penstock projects all have in common—they’re in the prettiest places, but they are extremely hard to get to and thus challenging to stage.

Hydro Leader: How would you say Garney is different from other construction companies in the hydro sector?

Hydro Leader: How many penstock jobs do you think Garney has done?

24 | HYDRO LEADER | September 2020

Matt Foster is Garney’s chief operating officer for western pipe operations. He can be contacted at mfoster@garney.com.

For more about Garney, visit www.garney.com.

hydroleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GARNEY.

Matt Foster: We’ve done 20 penstock projects, and in fact we are contracted with Xcel Energy right now to do another, namely, the third phase of the Tacoma flow line. This will involve replacing the remainder of the pipe, which is about 7,000 feet long. Along the way, we’ve engaged in a great number of smaller repairs for different power companies.

We’ve also done some work replacing the circulating waterlines in power plants, which fail over time due to corrosion. We often slip-line them without having to tear down the power plant.

Matt Foster: I think it’s our people that make the difference.

We’re all owners, so we want to do our very best. We underpromise and overdeliver. We believe that we’re going to be in business for the next 50 years and beyond, so what we do today will reflect on us for the rest of our careers. Leaving a legacy that we’re proud of is extremely important to every one of us at Garney. If we do a great job, that message will spread, and the business and everything else will follow.

Throughout our conversation, I’ve talked about what Garney as a company has accomplished, and I want to make it clear that it really is a team effort. In the case of every project I discussed, there were multiple Garney employeeowners working hard, often in stressful conditions, in all sorts of roles from onsite construction to communications with our customers. Each one of them has a sense of pride and loyalty to this company, and that is what has made us successful. H

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Maximum service life For small and large hydro Whether your plant is large or small, or whether it’s new or decades old, Voith is there for you — anywhere in North America and across the globe. As your full-service partner throughout the lifecycle of your hydropower plant, our experts ensure your plant operates safely, efficiently and at peak availability.

With more than 140 years serving the North American market, Voith offers proactive services and customized service agreements to support your hydro plant and keep it running at high profitability.

Our service teams are available to support you and keep your equipment operating.

For more information on Voith HyService, call Lars Bot at (905) 287-5849

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Learn more about Voith in the U.S. at qrs.ly/bybqsjj

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Voith Hydro’s Expertise on Pumped Storage Projects

The upper and lower reservoirs of the Kaprun Upper Stage and Limberg II pumped storage power stations in Austria.

T

he Voith Group is a Germany-based multinational corporation with more than 19,000 employees worldwide.

One of its primary divisions is Voith Hydro, a complete system supplier that produces turbines and generators for the world’s largest hydropower stations. Voith Hydro’s expertise also extends to pumped storage hydroelectric projects. In this interview, we speak with Dr. Klaus Krüger, Voith Hydro’s senior expert in plant safety and energy storage solutions, about his research and the key factors to keep in mind when planning a pumped storage facility.

Hydro Leader: Please tell our readers about your background, education, and work experience with Voith.

28 | HYDRO LEADER | September 2020

Hydro Leader: Would you describe your comparative research on battery storage versus pumped storage for bulk energy storage?

Klaus Krüger: The research work compares the marginal costs resulting from the specific raw material costs of a representative stationary lithium-ion battery storage facility and a pumped storage scheme, each with a bulk energy capacity of 13.4 gigawatt-hours (GWh) and a lifetime of 100 years. It is evident that the two systems need completely different types and quantities of resources, leading to substantial differences in their specific raw material costs. In addition to the raw material costs, we examined the annual lifetime investment costs and land requirements for each technology. Finally, we analyzed the different contributions to the overall carbon footprint. This research work hydroleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF VOITH.

Klaus Krüger: I studied electrical engineering at the Technical University of Karlsruhe in Germany and graduated in 1987 and then earned a PhD at the same university in 1991. By 1992, I was employed with ABB’s thermal power plant automation division in Mannheim, Germany, gaining professional experience in national and international power plant automation and optimization projects and in different management positions. In 2004, I joined Voith Hydro Holding in Heidenheim, Germany.

From 2004 until 2016, I was the head of research and

development at Voith’s Corporate Technology Center. From 2016 onward, I was responsible for product and plant safety, innovation management, and trend scouting. Since 2017, I have been a member of the executive board of the European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE) in Brussels. My current position at Voith Hydro, which I have held since 2019, is senior expert in plant safety and energy storage.

ADVERTISEMENT contributes to the ongoing and controversial discussions around the economic efficiency and environmental effect of different storage technologies for stationary applications.

and Hybrid Chemical Energy Storage by K. Brun, T. Allison, and R. Dennis, which will be published at the end of 2020

by Elsevier.

Hydro Leader: What were your findings?

Hydro Leader: If people have questions about their potential project, can they contact you directly?

Hydro Leader: What is your advice to anyone considering a pumped storage project? What are the most important factors to consider?

Klaus Krüger: Probably the most important factor is the appropriate siting of the project. Pumped storage solutions work best when you have a significant difference in elevation between the upper and lower reservoirs—a typical project would be in the 200–700 meter (656–2,296 foot) head range. The amount of energy that can be generated or stored is proportional to this elevation difference and to the volume of water being stored.

The variation in level of the lower reservoir should be kept to a minimum. This can be accomplished by making sure that the downstream reservoir has a larger surface area.

In many cases, it is advantageous to make use of a large existing lake with a natural inflow as the upstream reservoir or a river as the downstream reservoir to mitigate the variation in level. The ratio of maximum head to minimum head throughout a pumping cycle should ideally not exceed 1.3. The volume of water required depends on the amount of energy that needs to be stored.

Most pumped storage schemes involve underground power plants because of the submergence requirements for pumped storage units. This means that the geology of the site must also be stable. A further consideration is that the site should have good access and connectivity to the power grid. Optimizing these main factors is key to the economic viability of the project.

For more details, I invite your readers to refer to “Pumped Hydroelectric Storage,” a piece I wrote that will appear as chapter 4.2 in the forthcoming book Thermal, Mechanical, hydroleadermagazine.com

Klaus Krüger: Yes, of course. My e-mail address is klaus.krueger@voith.com. For North American projects, please contact our head of sales, Carl Atkinson, at carl.atkinson@voith.com.

3.0 mio t GWP in t CO2-eq

Klaus Krüger: In terms of raw material costs, pumped storage plants use relatively cheap raw materials, such as steel and concrete, whereas certain components of battery cells, such as mercury, binder, and electrolytic solvents, are highly costly. As a consequence, the overall raw material costs of the initial installation of a battery storage project are about 3.7 times higher than the costs of the initial installation of a pumped storage project of the same power and energy storage capacity. Over a lifetime of 100 years, the overall raw material costs are about 18 times higher for a battery storage project. The capital investment and operating costs of a battery storage are 18 times higher than those of a pumped hydro plant. Finally, due to the high greenhouse gas potential of certain raw materials used in battery cells, the carbon footprint of a battery storage system turns out to be double the footprint of the pumped storage hydro plant.

2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0

Battery Storage Raw Material

Pumped Storage

Construction & Transport

Pumped storage solutions have a global warming footprint that is significantly smaller than that of battery projects.

Hydro Leader: What should everyone know about Voith?

Klaus Krüger: We are focused on being the ideal partner for hydropower energy producers. Voith is known for being a full-line, water-to-wire supplier of hydroelectric equipment, but we have found customers to be impressed by our breadth of offerings in services and areas such as small hydro and digital solutions. Voith and Voith legacy companies, which include Allis-Chalmers Hydroelectric, S. Morgan Smith, and Westinghouse Hydro, have been manufacturing in the United States since 1877. Even today, Voith’s York, Pennsylvania, location is one of the world’s largest dedicated hydropower turbine equipment manufacturing facilities and is the only one in the United States to feature a hydraulic laboratory. H Dr. Klaus Krüger is the senior expert in plant safety and energy storage solutions at Voith Hydro.

September 2020 | HYDRO LEADER

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BUSINESS LEADER

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Worthington Products: A Worldwide Leader in Waterway Barrier Technology

Paul Meeks with an ODINBoom system and public-safety signage.

P

aul Meeks, the president of Worthington Products, is on a mission. His company, Worthington Products, is so well known for its orange TUFFBOOM product line that many people overlook Worthington’s other high-density polyethylene (HDPE), steel, and custom-fabricated waterway barrier systems.

Worthington is a multidisciplinary designer, manufacturer, and installer of waterway barrier systems made from steel, HDPE, or molded plastic, and Mr. Meeks wants people to know that. In this interview, he talks with Hydro Leader about the origins of Worthington Products and how it has grown into a worldwide leader in waterway barrier technology.

Paul Meeks: I graduated from Ohio University in 1987, armed with degrees in international business and marketing. I never imagined, coming out of college, that I could marry my college degree with my passion for dams and the outdoors.

I have my first postcollege employer, Oiles America, to thank for introducing me to the dams industry. Oiles

30 | HYDRO LEADER | September 2020

hydroleadermagazine.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF WORTHINGTON PRODUCTS.

Hydro Leader: Please tell our readers about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

manufactures self-lubricating bearings and has its U.S. headquarters near Detroit, Michigan. I spent 5 years at Oiles focusing on the automotive stamping industry. Along the way, I got my first taste of hydro through a quarter-milliondollar project I sold to BC Hydro for its G.M. Shrum Generating Station. I had never been to a hydro plant, so I put on my best dark-blue power suit, white shirt, and red tie and headed west from Detroit to Vancouver, British Columbia. From there, I took a puddle jumper 500 miles north, over the Canadian Rockies. My face was plastered to the window as I flew over the most majestic mountain ranges I had ever seen. I said to myself, if this is where hydro installations are located, then this is for me! When I arrived in the small town where the power plant was located, I learned that there, suits are for Sunday services and funerals. I was completely out of place, especially when we went 17 stories below the dam to the scroll cage, which was dewatered at the time. There was no choice but to slosh around, looking at a disassembled turbine unit and seeing where the wicket gates and bearings would be placed. I loved every second of it.

ADVERTISEMENT Upon returning from that trip, I told the company’s president that I wanted us to start concentrating more on hydro. While Oiles is still around and is successful in the hydroelectric field, at that time, the leadership was more focused on the auto side of the business. I already had the hydro bug, so when the leadership said no, I decided it was time to move on. I contacted one of Oiles’s Germany-based competitors—another self-lubricated bearing manufacturer— by fax and brashly told them that they would not be successful until they had a U.S. presence. After I faxed them a second time, I received a reply saying that company personnel would be in Philadelphia the next week and inviting me to come meet with them. I flew to Philadelphia, rented the biggest, longest, newest white Cadillac I could find, and drove up to the hotel where three of their company directors were waiting.

Within 30 minutes, I had convinced them of the need to establish a North American company.

I worked mostly with hydro companies in Canada and gained a lot of experience that solidified my passion for the industry. After setting up and leading this German company’s North American operations for 4 years, I launched Paul Meeks and Associates, a manufacturer’s agent representing suppliers to the hydro and dams industry.

One of my company’s first clients was a California company called RRS Industries. It had an odd-looking, 10‑foot-long orange plastic tube called TUFFLOAT that served as a floating boom to stop and collect floating debris on waterways. RRS’s primary focus was on municipal waste contracts for garbage cans and other highervolume products. When I presented my knowledge of the hydro industry to the company owner, he saw it as an opportunity to expand his business in log and debris booms.

TUFFLOAT was the first rotomolded log boom on the market, and it quickly developed a following.

Nevertheless, in May 2001, RRS informed me that the company had been experiencing financial difficulties, due in large part to the manner in which a new plant it was constructing had been financed. The owner wanted me to help him finance a new company, but after thinking about it, I politely declined. I knew his underlying interest would still be in municipal garbage-can contracts and that mine was in hydro. However, I also recognized that while the boom we had been selling was basically good, I could make it even better. At that point, I called the bankruptcy court to see how they were disposing of the company and whether I could buy the TUFFLOAT product line and all its tooling, licensing, and patents. I also recognized that there were outstanding contracts that could easily be fulfilled if I purchased the completed product inventory. I did that, and a few days later, I completed the purchase of the licensing and tooling aspects of the product, which was the beginning of Worthington Products. Today, we sell products in 63 countries and are recognized as the world’s leading manufacturer of waterway barriers, terrorist control barriers, fish guidance systems, and solutions related to public safety around dams. hydroleadermagazine.com

BUSINESS LEADER

Hydro Leader: What is Worthington Products’ product line today?

Paul Meeks: Most people recognize Worthington for our original TUFFBOOM product. But TUFFBOOM is only one of our products. It represents a small segment of our total business. Worthington concentrates on floating waterway barriers that prevent people, debris, or fish from going somewhere you don’t want them to go. Our range of products includes surface debris–control systems, fish guidance systems that keep migrating salmon out of turbines, and antiterrorist security barriers. We have a long-term contract with the French Navy to install highprofile, high-security antiterrorist barriers to stop boats from attacking their naval installations. We also have a large initiative related to public safety around dams, which involves barriers, booms, buoys, and even signage to keep people away from dams. Many deaths still occur around dam facilities each year—just to give you an example, over the 2 weeks prior to July 1, there were 7 deaths and 15 injuries at dam installations in the United States. People recreate around hydropower facilities without understanding the dangers related to them.

Hydro Leader: You mentioned that you have products in 63 different counties. Would you tell us a little more about your overseas activities?

Paul Meeks: We’ve participated in so many great projects worldwide that it’s difficult to single out just one or two. We recently completed a large project in the Republic of Malawi, where we custom-designed a complex floating-vegetation barrier system. Malawi’s power supply was shut down several years ago because massive floating islands of vegetation, mostly hyacinth, floated down the Shire River and blocked the primary intakes of the key hydroelectric generating stations that power the country. This problem reduced Malawi’s gross domestic product by about 25 percent. In response, the Electricity Supply Commission of Malawi launched a long-term project to upgrade several facilities.

Initially, they simply wanted a small TUFFBOOMstyle barrier to help control the floating hyacinth. The TUFFBOOM barrier worked, but it really was not suited for the massive amounts of vegetation that were flowing down this large river. In 2018, Worthington was contracted to design and supply a robust custom steel barrier supported by our BoatBuster-style floats. The $2.9 million project is doing the job it was designed to do.

Another exciting project is at the newly commissioned Xayaburi Dam in Laos. We made a massive head-pond debris deflection system and a tailrace and spillway safety system to keep fishermen out. Each head-pond unit is 20 feet long with 10‑foot-deep screens in front of it. They’re not only designed to deflect huge amounts of vegetation, but also the logs and trash that flow down this river. They deflect September 2020 | HYDRO LEADER

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BUSINESS LEADER

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the debris to large gates where it is passed downstream through spillway gates. Interestingly, the project owners also wanted a tailrace safety barrier. A lot of the developing nations we work with are not interested in public safety, only in debris control. That was not the case in Laos. That $3.2 million system was installed in fall 2019, and it’s working excellently.

Hydro Leader: Do you see a trend of increased awareness or concern for public safety in the hydropower industry?

Paul Meeks: There is increased awareness, but we have a ways to go, especially when we compare ourselves to countries like Canada. The numbers of injuries and deaths at our nation’s dams are still too high. We informally track annual incidents at U.S. dams. Over the last few years, the United States has had about 55 deaths annually, but when we take a closer look, we actually think the real number might be twice as high. It is imperative that the industry address the public-safety hazards of our dams. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is currently rewriting its guidelines for public safety around dams. The Canadian Dam Association has developed a robust publicsafety program around dams, and my hope is that FERC is looking at the Canadian model. The Canadian model has not only dramatically cut public safety–related incidents, but it is fast becoming the worldwide standard.

More people die recreating around dams than they do from dam failures. Public safety around dams has always been considered part of the broader category of dam safety, but we believe it should be considered as an independent topic. It is something dam owners have a responsibility to pay attention to. That said, I do not support legislative mandates in this area. I think dam owners should enact safety measures based on guidance from FERC and leading best practices. If dam owners ignore or shortchange their public-safety efforts, then I believe legislators will step in and mandate a one-size-fits-all solution. All the same, I think the threat of lawsuits provides sufficient encouragement for electric utility managers to put publicsafety measures in place. Litigation costs much more than a proper public-safety-around-dams program, which should include public-safety barriers, signage, and warning systems.

Hydro Leader: What are some basic measures that can be taken to increase public safety?

32 | HYDRO LEADER | September 2020

Hydro Leader: What other trends do you see in the hydro power sector?

Paul Meeks: As I mentioned, many people see Worthington as the TUFFBOOM folks. Our prominence in the market has increased the awareness of boom systems and has led to an increase in their use across the United States, Canada, and other countries. That increased the knowledge base and has led to exciting new developments, especially in the last 4 years or so.

One trend is the use of different materials. Most people know Worthington for its molded plastic booms, but we are material agnostic. We also manufacture HDPE-pipe and steel-pontoon boom systems. Molded booms are great for people on a budget or who simply want a boom to last 15–20 years. Customers who are looking for boom systems designed for up to 50 years should look at steel and especially HDPE booms. We recently introduced a thick-walled HDPE-style boom called ODINBoom.

ODINBoom is designed for a life of up to 50 years, features a lifetime watertight design, and can be produced in any color using a proprietary production process. The outer colored layer will never peel, bubble, or delaminate.

Hydro Leader: What is your message to policymakers?

Paul Meeks: Hydro is a beautiful asset that provides so many economic, societal, and recreational benefits to our country. Hydro fits perfectly within our country’s mix of power options. My message to policymakers is simple: Support hydro as the great source of clean, renewable energy that it is. H

Paul Meeks is the president of Worthington Products. He can be contacted at pmeeks@tuffboom.com or (330) 452‑7400.

hydroleadermagazine.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF WORTHINGTON PRODUCTS.

Paul Meeks: People need to be aware of the dangers at dams and in reservoirs. That starts with public outreach from the utility. Signage is a great starting point. However, if signage is not done properly, it is totally ineffective. Unfortunately, from what we have seen, hydroelectric utilities and dam owners in this country lack any guidance on signage, and there is currently no consistent standard for public-safety

signage around dams. Recognizing this, we have decided to take action to educate dam owners about proper signage ourselves. We’re adamant about it, so much so that when a hydro owner on the Susquehanna River asked us to make signs for it and simply wanted to recreate its ineffective old signs, we declined. We did not want Worthington’s name associated with bad signage. If you are going to put a sign program in place, you should do it properly. In certain cases, booms or buoy systems are also warranted, but not in every case. It depends on the risk factors. Finally, you can also use audible signals, which is something we are not involved in, but which is another one of the top safety methods.

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THE INNOVATORS

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NuSTREEM: Bringing Aerospace Ingenuity to the Hydropower Industry

A NuSTREEM turbine.

N

uSTREEM is a hydropower company whose modular small hydro units use tested, patented intelligence to optimize performance, leading to proven, measurable efficiency gains. With thousands of hours of run time on six preproduction units, NuSTREEM is now launching a pilot program for its NuTECH Controller and is seeking to install more of its units. In this interview, NuSTREEM General Manager Juliann Blanford tells Hydro Leader about what makes NuSTREEM’s technology novel and what the company can offer to hydropower owners and operators.

Hydro Leader: Please tell us about your background and history of your company, NuSTREEM.

34 | HYDRO LEADER | September 2020

Hydro Leader: How many folks work at NuSTREEM? Juliann Blanford: Ten of the best people I know. As needed, we also access people with specialized manufacturing and engineering excellence through our sister companies and on-call consultants.

Hydro Leader: Is NuSTREEM an American company?

Juliann Blanford: Our company is registered in Connecticut, everyone who works here is American, all our manufacturing is done in the United States, and all our suppliers are in the United States. We do ultimately roll up to a British private equity company, but all that is in the background and doesn’t really affect what our customers need.

Hydro Leader: What is the range of your turbines, and are they all essentially the same size?

Juliann Blanford: Our family of turbines ranges from 8 to 40 feet of head, and each one is designed for 85 cubic feet per second of water. Broadly speaking, we determine the model of turbine a customer needs based on the amount of head, and we determine the number of turbines they need based on the site flow. With our standard and modular approach, each of the models in our family of turbines is built with a tried and true turbine design. Our family of turbines can fit generators of 75, 100, 150, 175, 200, and 250 kilowatts, all in the same physical envelope, which is approximately 9 feet by 9 feet hydroleadermagazine.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF NUSTREEM.

Juliann Blanford: My background is in finance. I came to NuSTREEM as the financial controller of our sister company, Froude, which makes high-performance dynamometers in Detroit and the UK. I started with NuSTREEM in 2018 and have been in love with the hydro industry ever since. The history of our company starts with our founders, who all came from a custom machine-design company, Windham Automated Machines (WAM), which was staffed with brilliant engineers from the aerospace industry. Custom machine companies are in the business of improving a company’s operations by designing machines to automate processes. WAM bought a mill to house its office and manufacturing space. The mill used to be powered by hydropower, but the site had long been decommissioned.

The company went to the market and solicited proposals for hydro turbines, but it did not like the approaches that were on offer. In response, it founded NuSTREEM (formerly known as HydroDynamic Energy) and spent the next 10 years designing and proving the reliability of a modular approach to a standard-

designed family of low-head, high-flow turbines based on a dual-regulated Kaplan turbine.

ADVERTISEMENT by 9 feet. Any model within our family of NuTURBINEs includes a dual-regulated Kaplan turbine, NuTECH controller, NuBRAKE, actuators, and a generator.

Hydro Leader: Would you tell us about the NuTECH controller and what it does?

Juliann Blanford: The NuTECH controller is a globally patented box of hardware and software that uses real-time optimization to increase the efficiency of turbines. We have proven the efficiency lift and can install it in less than a day.

Your readers can download the case study by visiting the NuTECH controller page on our website, www.nustreem.com.

THE INNOVATORS

Hydro Leader: What should every owner of a hydropower machine know about NuSTREEM? Juliann Blanford: That the intelligence that runs our lowhead Kaplan turbines can run yours more efficiently, too!

Hydro Leader: What is your attitude toward customer service?

Juliann Blanford: I love serving this industry and the great people in it. I’m grateful for the chance to do so.

Hydro Leader: How many turbines do you have installed, and where are they?

Hydro Leader: Is this technology applicable to turbines not produced by NuSTREEM? Juliann Blanford: Yes. The NuTECH controller can be adapted to an existing turbine to increase its efficiency. The installation is noninvasive and takes less than a day. We put it on top of existing programmable logic controllers (PLCs), so we do not have to uproot what is already on site at the plant.

The hydro industry is moving toward modernization and is considering the effect that digitization and remote control may have on its goals. Many turbine owners and operators have installed PLCs and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, so they are already optimizing their systems in some manner. Our NuTECH controller can work with what is there to optimize it with our fundamentally new approach.

Hydro Leader: Does the controller need to be customized to the turbine?

Juliann Blanford: Yes. We customize it to the turbine equipment’s level of capability of receiving continuous adjustments and can program in an interval (once a day, week, or month) based on what the site operator is comfortable with. We ensure that commands going to the turbine are being received by equipment that can execute the command in a safe manner over the long term.

Hydro Leader: What has NuSTREEM done to prepare this technology for the market?

Juliann Blanford: The first step was to complete a realworld test and analyze the results. At one site, we observed the encouraging result of 20 percent efficiency gains at low flow. Now, we want to see what we can get at other sites.

Hydro Leader: Are you actively looking for pilot partners?

Juliann Blanford: Yes. In July 2020, we launched a pilot program. We are seeking sites at which to install the NuTECH controller in exchange for letting us see how much efficiency improvement we can achieve. hydroleadermagazine.com

A NuTECH controller installed as part of a performance evaluation.

Juliann Blanford: There are six of them installed: five in Connecticut and one in Massachusetts. Please call us to set up a tour and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook to keep up with our projects!

Hydro Leader: Are you looking to branch out?

Juliann Blanford: Yes. We’re actively in the market. Since we specialize in manufacturing, we team up with large integrators and engineering houses for their civil and regulatory expertise. As a team, we can provide water-towire solutions for minimum flow sites, irrigation districts, and retrofitting existing sites, among other applications. H Juliann Blanford is the general manager of NuSTREEM. She can be contacted at juliann.blanford@nustreem.com.

September 2020 | HYDRO LEADER

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HYDRO LAW

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2020 Mid-Year Hydropower Update

By Morgan Gerard, Elizabeth McCormick, and Chuck Sensiba

The Washington, DC, headquarters of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

D

uring the first half of 2020, the hydropower industry has been subject to major regulatory changes that are likely to have far-reaching and significant consequences for licensees, regulators, and other stakeholders. These changes include two major rules altering longstanding regulations pertaining to the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA); proposed changes to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) dam safety program following the catastrophic dam failures in Michigan; and several key pieces of proposed legislation working their way through Congress.

Section 401 Rulemaking

36 | HYDRO LEADER | September 2020

hydroleadermagazine.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE EPA.

On June 1, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule that revised the nearly-50-year-old water quality certification (WQC) regulations established by section 401 of the CWA. Prior to the issuing of this rule, the EPA’s regulations implementing section 401 were broad, giving states extensive power to impose a wide variety of conditions on proposed projects. Those conditions are often costly to implement and maintain and inject a large degree of uncertainty into hydropower development and licensing. In its final rule, the EPA clarified that “section 401 appropriately

focuses on addressing water quality impacts from potential or actual discharges from federally licensed or permitted projects.” In other words, the EPA’s final rule requires states and tribes to focus their review on the water quality of the discharge, not on the overall activity that is the subject of the federal permitting effort.

The final rule also clarified the time period for section 401 state review, providing that 1 year is the “absolute outer bound” for states to act on requests for WQC, and that the 1‑year period begins on the date the state receives a certification request, meaning a signed and dated written communication requesting certification with a description of the project, its discharges, and receiving waters. The rule would also prohibit a state and applicant from engaging in a coordinated effort of withdrawal and resubmittal requests to toll, or restart, the 1‑year period.

The EPA’s final rule also provided that a state will be considered to have waived its certification authority when it “fails or refuses to act” on a section 401 certification application within the “reasonable period” designated by the federal permitting agency. In addition, the final rule is explicit that a state “fails or refuses” to act when it fails to issue a WQC or denial in writing or to follow the procedural requirements of section 401.

NEPA Rulemaking

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On July 16, 2020, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) published its long-awaited final rule to amend its regulations implementing NEPA, introducing important changes to the 40‑year-old review process. The CEQ’s revisions codify many streamlined practices aimed at speeding up the infrastructure-approval process, including reduced time frames to complete NEPA reviews; page limits, content guidelines, and recommended a format for NEPA documents; and a process for referrals to the CEQ of actions causing unsatisfactory environmental effects.

Most notably, the CEQ’s rule eliminated the definitions of direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts and provided that a cumulative impacts analysis is no longer required as part of a NEPA review, though federal agencies are still free to consider the effects of climate change in certain situations.

The final rule also eases public participation requirements, provides additional guidance on when an agency may issue a Finding of No Significant Impact, and clarifies that agencies are only required to consider a “reasonable” number of alternatives to the proposed action “that are technically and economically feasible, meet the purpose and need for the proposed action, and, where applicable, meet the goals of the applicant.” The rule will apply to reviews commencing after September 14, 2020.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF TROUTMAN PEPPER.

Legislative Updates

The first several months of 2020 have also seen a number of legislative proposals that will, if finalized, affect hydropower owners and operators. On June 29, Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers introduced the Hydropower Clean Energy Future Act, which affirms that hydropower is a “renewable resource” for purposes of all federal programs and designates FERC as the lead agency for the purposes of all federal authorizations and for complying with any required state or local environmental reviews. The bill aims to improve coordination among permitting agencies and provides exemptions from licensing requirements for certain small hydroelectric projects that are unlikely to jeopardize threatened or endangered species or critical habitats. It also provides for the expedited licensing of certain hydropower projects that use technologies that protect, mitigate, or enhance environmental resources and are not in “widespread, utility-scale use in the United States.”

On June 30, Democratic members of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis released a Climate Crisis Action Plan that would establish a clean energy standard to attain net-zero electricity sector emissions by 2040 and would include hydropower as a zero-emission technology. It would also recommend that Congress expand the production tax credit for qualified hydropower facilities, provide incentive payments to make efficiency improvements at existing hydropower facilities, and provide additional funding for marine generation research. hydroleadermagazine.com

HYDRO LAW

Dam Safety

On June 22, Democratic members of the House of Representatives released the Moving Forward Act, which aims to encourage investment in infrastructure and includes several provisions on hydropower and dam safety. In response to the May 2020 breach of Sanford and Edenville Dams in Michigan, the Moving Forward Act would amend the Federal Power Act to provide assurances that FERC’s dam safety requirements have been satisfied and would require FERC to establish procedures to determine the financial ability of a license applicant to meet dam safety requirements. It would also require that FERC hold a dam safety technical conference

by April 2021 to provide information to states on dam maintenance and repair, risk-informed decisionmaking, climate and hydrological changes that may affect the safety and structural integrity of dams, and high-hazard dams. A related provision of the House Transportation Committee’s Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2020 would amend the National Dam Safety Program, which is run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Section 135 of WRDA would bring FERC-licensed projects with a capacity of 1.5 megawatts or less under the jurisdiction of the FEMA program, potentially requiring the owners and operators of those dams to comply with the safety programs of both FERC and FEMA. Finally, on July 16, 2020, FERC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to overhaul its part 12 dam safety program regulations. The notice, which is subject to a 60‑day comment period, contains three major changes to FERC’s dam safety regulations. First, it would provide for a two-tiered inspection process that alternates between more in-depth “comprehensive assessments” and “periodic inspections” that would be narrower in scope. Second, it would revise FERC’s process for evaluating independent consultants that perform dam safety inspections. Finally, it would codify existing guidance requiring licensees of highhazard dams to have an owner’s dam safety program. H

Morgan Gerard is an associate at Troutman Pepper.

She can be contacted at morgan.gerard@troutman.com.

Elizabeth McCormick is an associate at Troutman Pepper.

She can be contacted at elizabeth.mccormick@troutman.com.

Chuck Sensiba is a partner at Troutman Pepper. He can be contacted at charles.sensiba@troutman.com.

September 2020 | HYDRO LEADER

| 37

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Leader ydro H Upcoming Events

August 6, 13, 19, 20, and 27, September 10 and 17 National Water Resources Association, Western Water Table Talk webinar series September 14–15 American Public Power Association, Business & Financial Virtual Conference September 15–16 Edison Electric Institute, American Gas Association, and Deloitte, FERC Training Webcast September 21–23 Edison Electric Institute, Advanced Public Utility Accounting Training Webcast September 29 Edison Electric Institute, Derivatives and Hedge Accounting: Updates and Hot Topics September 30 Edison Electric Institute, CAO Let’s Talk Accounting October 1–31 U.S. Society on Dams, 2020 Fall Workshop Series (virtual) October 5–6 Edison Electric Institute, Virtual Fall TDMMA Conference October 12–14 Hydropower Foundation, Hydro Think Tank, Niskayuna, NY October 13 American Public Power Association, Legal and Regulatory Virtual Conference October 25–28 Edison Electric Institute, Fall National Key Accounts Workshop, Indianapolis, IN October 27 American Public Power Association, Customer Connections Virtual Conference October 27 Northwest Hydroelectric Association and National Hydropower Association, Northwest Regional Workshop (virtual) October 7, 14, 21, and 28 National Hydropower Association, Hydraulic Power Month Virtual Seminars November 4–5 National Hydropower Association, Northwest Regional Meeting/Workshop, Hood River, OR November 8–11 Edison Electric Institute and American Gas Association, Taxation Committee Meeting, Scottsdale, AZ November 9–11 Edison Electric Institute, Virtual Financial Conference November 9–11 National Water Resources Institute, 89th Annual Conference, Scottsdale, AZ November 10 American Public Power Association, Public Power Forward Virtual Summit November 15–18 Edison Electric Institute, Fall Accounting Conference, Bay Lake, FL November 16 American Public Power Association, Cybersecurity Virtual Summit

To sign up to receive Hydro Leader in electronic form, please contact our managing editor, Joshua Dill, at joshua.dill@waterstrategies.com. hydroleadermagazine.com

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