Innovation in Global Power - Parsons Brinckerhoff

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Hydropower – New Technologies, New Considerations addition of the lower 1.3 km (0.8 miles) of new impoundment, would restore the previous reservoir footprint. The project would operate in an instantaneous run-of-river mode where discharge equals inflow; i.e., without provision for water storage or regulation of downstream flow. It would also provide ice control measures to prevent the formation of ice “dams” downstream, which could result in bottom scouring and re-suspension of contaminated sediment. PB’s overall scope covers: • Project management, including planning, budgets, scheduling and project control systems • Licensing, including coordinating the FERC ILP, managing environmental studies, applying for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Clean Water Act Section 404 Permit and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) Clean Water Act Section 401 Water Quality Certification Permit and, finally, applying for the FERC license • Engineering, including feasibility studies for structural, geotechnical, hydrology and hydraulics, and electrical analyses • Specialty tasks/interests, including fish passage, HEC-RAS modeling of river hydraulics, stability analyses, and ice management. Regulatory Challenge: FERC ILP FERC initiated the ILP in 2003 and it became the default process in July 2005. The first license issued under ILP was granted in December 2007. The ILP attempts to streamline the licensing process by providing a predictable, efficient, and timely process while maintaining adequate resource protections. Its three fundamental principles are to: • Identify issues and resolve study needs early in the process to fill information gaps and thereby avoid studies after license filing • Integrate other stakeholder (non-federal agencies) permit process needs into the FERC process • Set a time frame to complete all steps of the ILP for all stakeholders, including FERC. To date, we have managed the project successfully through the following ILP steps: • Preliminary permit application (PPA). This permit is used to reserve the right to develop a site while owners/ developers investigate the potential for dam construction. It is limited to three years and developers must demonstrate to FERC that sufficient development progress is ongoing or the permit may be revoked. • Multiple six-month preliminary progress reports. These reports to FERC demonstrate that a developer is making progress towards filing a license application. • Notice of Intent (NOI). This indicates than an existing dam http://www.pbworld.com/news_events/publications/network/ owner intends to re-apply for a license or a developer intends to apply for a new license. • Preliminary application document (PAD). Prepared by the owner or developer, the PAD brings together all existing, relevant, and reasonable information about the existing dam or proposed dam site. It identifies information gaps and proposes studies needed to address them, and it includes a finalized licensing process plan and schedule. • Scoping process. FERC conducts site visits to the existing dam or proposed project site, holds public meetings, and discusses the project with stakeholders to refine the issues. Stakeholders make study requests and then FERC issues a scoping document outlining issues related to the project. • Study planning. The project owner or developer submits a draft study plan to address issues identified during the scoping process. Stakeholders comment on the draft study plan, and the owner/developer submits a revised, final study plan. FERC then determines if the final study plan is adequate or requires changes. Certain stakeholders, i.e., agencies, have a right to dispute the FERC determined study plan, which starts a trial-like process for determining if the studies are needed. • Study types. The types of studies that are typically required for the ILP include fish passage, instream habitat assessments, rare, threatened, or endangered species, macroinvertebrate insects, recreational and cultural resources, wetlands and aquatic vegetation, and birds. Studies may require collection of surveys or field data or, when possible, may use existing information compiled into a report. Challenges during the ILP process to date have included: • A lack of understanding of the ILP by stakeholders. • The fast pace and demanding schedule of the ILP on all stakeholders. • Difficulty stakeholders seemed to have transferring the ILP to decisions on a new dam. Prior to this project, the ILP has been primarily used for relicensing existing hydropower projects. • A study dispute panel process, which was initiated by a stakeholder. The new FERC dispute panel process is a trial-type proceeding used within the ILP to resolve study disputes. In this case, NYS DEC disputed several FERC-approved study plans. Our team worked directly with NYS DEC officials to resolve several issues deemed “disputes of methods” within proposed study plans that all parties (FERC, MED and NYS DEC) accepted in general (as opposed to “disputes of plans,” whereby parties disagree on the need to conduct a study). For example, while everyone agreed a study of lake sturgeon movements was needed, the NYS DEC wanted three continuous radio- PB Network #68 / August 2008 28
Hydropower – New Technologies, New Considerations receiver monitors and only two had been proposed. We agreed to install a third monitor and worked with NYS DEC to identify the site for the monitor and NYS DEC withdrew its dispute. In this way, our team resolved many disputes of methods prior to the panel convening, leaving only a few issues that required a FERC ruling. At the conclusion of the dispute panel process, FERC determined that the NYS DEC disputed studies were not required. This ruling was consistent with PB’s assessment and in favor of MED, saving the client substantial resources. Engineering Challenge: Ice Control The Town of Massena and Village of Massena waterfront properties are exposed seasonally to the effects of high flows in ice cover conditions and ice pack flowage events, both of which affect areas proposed for re-development in local community revitalization plans. Further, ice dam formation (also referred to as ice jams) in the lower river has been identified as a mechanism by which contaminated river sediments can be re-suspended. Options to address the impacts of ice jam related sediment scour are being considered as part of the evaluation of longterm remedial options. One possible solution is the MED project itself, into which we have integrated ice control into the engineering design as an option. Higher springtime flows will pass through deep-set, bottom-opening flood release gates instead of passing high flows over a spillway, a typical feature of many dams. Using bottom-opening gates will retain ice behind the dam. A careful analysis of upstream effects associated with retaining the ice behind the dam, including computer modeling, is being performed and is under evaluation by independent, leading international ice-experts and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (Hanover, New Hampshire). PB is working with this team to ensure that any upstream impacts are accounted for in both the design and operations of the project. Draft study results indicate that ice retention at the dam could effectively eliminate conditions under which ice jams form in the lower river. Environmental Challenges http://www.pbworld.com/news_events/publications/network/ The successful development of this project will depend on regulatory acceptance of engineering and dam operation plans to address key natural resource impacts. Issues beyond fish passage mitigation include habitat and population impacts, and potential impacts to: • New York State-threatened fish (lake sturgeon and eastern sand darter) • Fishes of concern (chinook salmon, walleye, muskellunge, American eel, Atlantic salmon) • Freshwater mussels of concern (pocketbook, elktoe, yellow lampmussel, and black sandshell) • Water quality (dissolved oxygen, temperature) • Macroinvertebrate communities • Fisheries communities • Wetlands • Submerged aquatic vegetation. PB is overseeing field studies of these issues as part of the ILP. Project Status In 2008 the project will enter the first official field season of the FERC ILP pre-filing steps. Sometimes two years are required for field studies, but the MED team pursued a strategy of pre-license field work in 2006 and 2007 to reduce the overall project schedule. We anticipate FERC accepting some of that work in lieu of required FERC approved studies in 2008. When field work has been completed and accepted by the FERC, we will prepare a Preliminary License Proposal (PLP), followed later by a License Application. The analysis of the river hydraulics will be complete and the conceptual engineering designs will be 30 to 40 percent complete at the filing of the PLP. Filing of the PLP will depend on the FERC ruling that all studies have been completed to its satisfaction. Related Web Sites: • www.ferc.gov • www.med.massena.ny.us • http://www.ferc.gov/industries/hydropower/gen-info/licensing/ilp/ flowchart.pdf Matthew Chan joined PB in January 2008 as a supervisory environmental scientist after six years of consulting on hydropower projects with a nationally recognized environmental consulting firm. Matt holds a doctorate degree in Fisheries Science, and has 16 years’ experience of specialized knowledge of river ecology, habitat, and flow regimes. Stefan Schadinger is a lead engineer with PB’s Boston Hydropower Group. He has 13 years’ experience in hydropower engineering, eight of them with PB. Stefan’s expertise is structural engineering and he has much practical experience on dams, dam gates and power plant components. 29 PB Network #68 / August 2008
Page 1 and 2: A technical journal by Parsons Brin
Page 3 and 4: http://www.pbworld.com/news_events/
Page 5 and 6: Thermal - Achieving New Efficiencie
Page 21 and 22: GENERATION: Hydropower - New Techno
Page 23 and 24: Hydropower - New Technologies, New
Page 27: Hydropower - New Technologies, New
Page 47 and 48: Renewables - The Risks, Concerns an
Page 59 and 60: Transporting Power Across the Grid
Page 69 and 70: Distributing Power to Users Researc
Page 71 and 72: Distributing Power to Users The fin
Page 73 and 74: Distributing Power to Users initial
Page 75 and 76: Distributing Power to Users A Surve
Page 79 and 80:
Distributing Power to Users http://
Page 81 and 82:
Planning and the Role of Regulators
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
http://www.pbworld.com/news_events/
Page 91 and 92:
DEPARTMENTS PB’s power specialist
Page 93 and 94:
Networking • What CPUs and PLCs w
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Networking 8. Dash Style. You can u
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Going Green: Walking the Walk!! By
Page 103 and 104:
show all

Innovation in Global Power - Parsons Brinckerhoff

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?