NuSTREEM’s Modular Small Hydro Offerings for New Zealand

NuSTREEM’s Modular Small Hydro Offerings for New Zealand

NuSTREEM is a pioneering hydroelectric equipment firm that manufactures modular small hydro installations that are suitable for irrigation schemes or other water conveyance operators. To make its turbines more portable and easier to install, it has developed the NuCONTAINER, an integrated, modular package in which turbines are transported and can be installed in a standard-size shipping container. In this interview, NuSTREEM General Manager Juliann Blanford tells Irrigation Leader about the company’s offerings for New Zealand.

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

Juliann Blanford: I have a finance background. I worked for Ernst and Young as a certified public accountant before I joined NuSTREEM as the general manager in January 2018. NuSTREEM’s two missions are to increase efficiency at existing hydropower sites and to deploy new small, modular hydropower sites.

Irrigation Leader: What is the size of your turbines?

Juliann Blanford: They range from 75 to 250 kilowatts. Our turbines are meant to be installed in an array. We can install multiple turbines at a site to get grid-scale energy.

Irrigation Leader: What is unique about your turbines?

Juliann Blanford: Our turbines are designed with a standard modular approach and are extremely efficient across a wide range of flows. When you’re looking at building a site in an irrigation district, you don’t have to build the powerhouse on site. The turbines come packaged in a shipping container with the switchgear and the grid interconnect ready to rapidly install at the site.

Irrigation Leader: So customers get a standard shipping container, and all they need to do is it to put it on a platform and then connect it electrically?

Juliann Blanford: Exactly. This approach greatly reduces the geotechnical and civil work typically involved in these hydropower sites, which is necessary to make the return on investment on these projects attractive.

Irrigation Leader: Where do you sell your turbines?

Juliann Blanford: We are a part of a global platform of hightech manufacturing companies. We are comfortable settling into basically any country, and we’ve got experience doing so. I describe us as an intensely global company. We can expand and contract our resources as necessary to accommodate our activities. As a result, we have no excess capacity and can keep our overhead costs to a minimum and confidently commit to schedules and performance. This business model provides us the capability to pass on savings and performance to our customers.

Irrigation Leader: If someone in New Zealand is interested in your turbines, how should they proceed?

Juliann Blanford: If someone in New Zealand has been to a potential hydropower site and has collected head and flow data, we’re happy to do the feasibility study to see if it makes sense to develop a hydropower facility there. We can bring the power and flexibility of the platform to our aid as necessary without creating an employment structure built to support only the highest demand needs. For this reason, we can comfortably offer our capabilities across a broad spectrum of projects, including larger opportunities.

Irrigation Leader: What is the manufacturing time for your turbines?

Juliann Blanford: Our NuCONTAINER, which is a readyto-deploy system in which turbines are packaged in a standard shipping container, takes 18 months to manufacture. If the potential client is an irrigation district, it will most likely need a new container, for which the standard lead time is 12– 18 months. If the client just needs a turbine, the lead time is more like 6–8 months. What this means is if we are involved early in the customer’s planning process and know its delivery requirements, we can work with our supply chain to prepare for the award. At times, this can reduce lead times.

Irrigation Leader: Do those times take into account the current supply chain disruptions?

Juliann Blanford: Yes. That’s a comfortable time frame for our vendors. The supply chain disruptions are affecting everyone. I know that New Zealand is feeling supply chain issues more strongly than we do in America.

Irrigation Leader: What should our New Zealand readers know about your company?

Juliann Blanford: We have a proven design. We’ve installed six turbines since 2014, all of which are running efficiently. Our turbines are easy to maintain. We design them to be easy to install, easy to operate, and easy to switch out if there is wear on the turbine. Our turbines are built in a rugged fashion. I’ve had a customer tell us that it looks like you could drop it from 100 feet and it would be fine. We want to see the ability to put a modern turbine into a hydropower site and have it run without a lot of maintenance. The other advantage of our turbine is that it’s controlled. We have patented technology controlling the turbine. Our turbine is optimally efficient at a wide range of flows, which a lot of irrigation districts experience. If you have an irrigation district with sites that have drops in elevation from 2 to 15 meters, our technology is highly suitable for you. Our design flow is 2.4 meters per second.

Juliann Blanford is general manager of NuSTREEM. For more information about NuSTREEM, e-mail Andy Sadlon at andy.sadlon@nustreem.com.