U.S. Hydroelectric Dam Projects Present Opportunities for Contractors, Vendors

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's (Washington, D.C.) $1 billion budget for 2015 includes many hydroelectric capital and maintenance projects. Industrial Info is tracking 43 active capital projects valued at $1.33 billion, which are being developed by the reclamation bureau. Top market regions for investments include the West Coast, with 15 projects worth $488 million, and the Rocky Mountains, with 28 projects worth $846 million.

Reclamation bureau maintenance projects being tracked by Industrial Info total 10, with a value of $127 million. Market regions for maintenance spending include the West Coast, with one project valued at $102 million, and the Rocky Mountains, with nine projects valued at $25 million.

Capital projects at reclamation bureau hydroelectric facilities include turbine upgrades and refurbishments, generator rewinds, runner upgrades, gate refurbishments, hydroelectric unit additions, and station service equipment refurbishments.

The bureau recently held an industry day to update vendors on the upcoming overhauls and generator rewinds at the Grand Coulee Dam. The overhauls, which are scheduled to start in 2016 and 2018, will refurbish generating units G1 thru G21 in order to modernize and extend their service lives for many years.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation owns 76 hydroelectric power plants, and operates and maintains 53 of those, with about 15% of total U.S. hydro-generating capacity. Although many of these power plant components are inspected annually, the average age of a reclamation bureau plant is 50 years. With design lives of 50 to 100 years, many plants are in need of major refurbishments or modernization to remain operational.

Some of these hydro facilities are prime targets for upgrades or modernizations on the existing turbines and generators, as well as refurbishments of station service equipment, such as breakers, transformers and switchgear. As these hydro generating units age, forced outages increase and unit peak availability decreases, which could make the plants unable to meet reliability compliance standards of the North American Reliability Corporation (NERC) (Washington, D.C.).

A 2011 resource assessment report by the reclamation bureau found a potential 67 megawatts (MW) of additional capacity at 10 of its hydroelectric plants, with additional electrical generation realized through the installation of new and more efficient turbines at some existing facilities.

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