Morgantown Dominion Post
13 December 2007
By Eric Bowen
A New York power company is considering putting in a hydroelectric power station at the Hildebrand Lock and Dam on the Monongahela River, an official said this week.
Brookfield Power U.S. has submitted a request with federal regulators to explore the feasibility and cost of adding power generation to the Hildebrand lock, said Jeffrey Auser, vice president of generation development for the eastern United States.
Hildebrand is the first dam upstream from the Morgantown Lock and Dam near downtown Morgantown. If built as proposed, the power generation station would create enough energy each year to power about 3,300 homes.
"We see some opportunities here that we think we need to take a closer look at," Auser said. "Hildebrand Lock and Dam is definitely on our list of top projects that we want to take a closer look at to see if there's a way to build a hydroelectric plant there."
Brookfield has applied for a preliminary permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Auser said. If approved, the permit would allow Brookfield to study the project for the next three years.
As proposed, the power station would have a maximum output of 10 megawatts, but Auser said that the dam won't always reach the maximum output because it's dependent on the flow of the river. The power output is much smaller than a coal-fired plant such as Longview Power Plant, which is rated for 695 megawatts.
Auser said the new dam would not affect the operation of the lock and dam. If it is built, the dam would be added to a section of the dam where it can take advantage of extra water flow through the dam.
Once the study is done, Brookfield would have to apply for an operators permit to build the dam, Auser said. At that point, the proposal would be reviewed for environmental impacts as well, to ensure it doesn't affect the operation of the dam.
It could be up to five years before the power station would come online. The energy generated by the dam would then likely be sold to a local power company or on the open market.
Brookfield Power is owned by Brookfield Asset Management based in Toronto, Canada, Auser said. The company owns about 150 hydroelectric power stations in Canada, Brazil and the United States, including West Virginia. It also owns wind and thermal energy plants.
Auser said that Brookfield typically builds and operates its power facilities, instead of building them and selling them to another company. He said that ensures the dams are properly maintained.
"Once it's built, we would maintain ownership of that facility, and we would look to be the operator also of that facility," Auser said. "There are some developers that will come in to a community, build something and look for the fast cash to turn it around and sell it to somebody else. That isn't the Brookfield way. We look for the long-term relationships and long-term opportunities."
The Hildebrand Lock and Dam is operated by the Army Corps of Engineers, said Curt Meeder, acting deputy for programs and project management for the Pittsburgh District. Because of high oil prices, the Corps has received a lot of requests in the past few months to look at putting in hydroelectric power stations at its dams, Meeder said.
Meeder said the Corps wants to ensure that the Hildebrand Dam proposal would not affect the operation of the dam, and that it would not impact the environment. But otherwise, he said, the Corps would encourage other uses of its commercial dams.
"We're all interested in generation of electricity that's safe, economical and environmentally compatible," Meeder said. "Our object is not to promote, but it's to be responsive to the developers who detect a viable proposition here."
Using dams for power generation is generally a good idea, said Upper Monongahela River Association technical coordinator Wallace Venable. But without seeing the specific proposal, he said, he could not say for sure whether his organization would support the proposed dam.
Venable, who is an emeritus associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at WVU, said that even though the output of the dam would be small, it could be a welcome addition to the energy output of the region.
"In general we would be very much in favor of it, because it's green power," Venable said. "We're not talking about heating the whole town, or lighting the whole town, but we're talking about a major contribution."