This paper will detail the process recently undertaken by an IPP owned small Hydropower facility to balance the multiple requirements imposed by operational considerationsand environmental regulations. The station that will be addressed in this paper is athree unit, 1.2 MW station located in southern Maine. The station was constructed in1917, with three identical vertical units each with Leffel F turbines with GE generators.Through the years the runners have suffered extreme deterioration but had been patchedto keep the machines running. The equipment was to the point where a major investmenthad to be made to ensure the reliability of the station. To complicate matters thisstation had recently gone through FERC Licensing process where upstream anddownstream fish passage became a station requirement.The paper will discuss the areas of success and those areas where we may have fallenshort due to limitations of the economics of small Hydro. The project was an excellentexample of the balance that has to be struck between economics, environmentalrequirements and equipment reliability. Discussions will include the equipment selectionand rehab process, the economic constraints imposed by an expiring power purchaseagreement and the ultimate success of the overall project.
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