Eaton’s contract will include the design, manufacturing, delivery, installation and commission of 12 Unit Control Boards and Governor Controls – part of the LPGP’s Control System Integration project. Specifically, the original electro-mechanical devices will be replaced with modern digital technology, including microprocessing capability, new instrumentation and alarms. The work will include upgrading the unit governing system and the replacement of the unit protective relaying system.
In June 2010, NYPA Trustees approved the investment of $460M in LPGP’s Life Extension and Modernization (LEM) program, which will enhance the pumped storage project’s performance and extend its working life years into the future. The LEM is a nine-year program that will include major upgrades to all 12 pump-turbines and replacement of the generator step-up transformers (GSUs), which date back to 1961 when the Niagara Project was first placed into service.
In 2006, NYPA completed a $24M maintenance program at LPGP in the same year that it finished a $298M, 15-year program to upgrade the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant, where it replaced turbines and retrofitted other components of all 13 generating units. The LEM at LPGP commenced this past summer with the replacement of the first GSU. The upgrade of the pump-turbine generating units will start in December 2012.
The unit work will occur under a schedule providing for the overhaul of a turbine generator every eight to nine months, with the final unit completed in 2020. The phase-in schedule provides for 11 of the 12 LPGP units to be available for operation during the LEM so that NYPA can meet its commitments to its customers.
LPGP is one of two major pumped storage facilities in New York State – the other being the Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project, another NYPA facility. In May 2010, the Authority completed a four-year overhaul of that facility, in the northern Catskills.
