Forum de la petite hydroélectricité

Hello Everyone:

We have been very busy! I am replacing a 4 metre diameter by 200 metre long wooden penstock with a steel penstock. We are replacing one of our James Leffel Francis turbines with a new "Kiser" turbine. Please see:(http://www.kiserhydro.com/) and (http://www.frenchriverland.com)

My wife, Karen, my son, Will and my daughter, Celesty purchased a hydro station. It has two powerhouses powered by a single dam. One unit is a 250 KW Kaplan and the other is an 80 KW Francis. They purchased the property in May of 2012. We worked on the smaller Francis unit all summer long. It was in very bad shape. The runner was missing. We installed a new runner and cleaned the gate case, generator, switchgear and installed new trashracks. When we started it up, we concentrated on the Kaplan turbine. Its draft tube had fallen off. My son Will used scuba gear to go under the tailrace and into the turbine discharge pit to attach a steel cable to the draft tube. We pulled it out of the water. We welded the draft tube back together and reinstalled it. Please see:

http://www.frenchriverland.com
https://picasaweb.google.com/frenchrive ... 2OKH48CSDA
https://picasaweb.google.com/frenchrive ... g_TktN_YEA
and the original construction photos from 1997:
https://picasaweb.google.com/frenchrive ... tionPhotos

This week we take possession of a 6 story cotton mill with 95,000 meters^2 of floor space and 450 KW of waterpower with two Francis units on 7 meters of head.

I hope all of you are happy, healthy and prospering!!! God bless the French and a very Happy New Year to all of you.

Sincerely,

William K. Fay P.E.
West Ware, Massachusetts, USA
https://picasaweb.google.com/frenchrive ... tionPhotos

Hello,

We wish you a happy New year 2013 !

Your work is really beautiful.
Your new Francis turbine looks very very well, all is stainless steel ?

What are the main characteristics of this turbine ? and is the price you paid ? (if it is not too intrusive!)

Best regards

Thierry

Dear Thierry:

The turbine is being made by the Kiser Company. It produces 780 KW on 8.5 metres of head. It is made of stainless steel. It is costing $425,000 US. It has a 62 inch (24.4 centimetre) throat diameter. The interesting part is that it is using a stainless steel aeration ring that we have installed in the throat. The air is admitted at part gate settings and improves both the efficiency and extends the range of operation from 40 % gate to an extraordinary 30% gate setting. The air breaks up the part gate vortices in the draft tube. You can read two authoratative articles on this principle at:

http://frenchriverland.com/air_admission.htm

and

http://frenchriverland.com/Celeste/Air% ... unners.pdf

Thank you for your interest and kind words!

Sincerely,

William K. Fay

Thank you William,

Yes, I am agree with that, this is a good solution in order to prevent and suppress the vortex in draft tube.

Here, in Europe, one often sees this device on Francis turbines above 15 m head.

I have an other question for you: do you use Thordon bearing ( water lubricated) on your turbine ?

Regrads

Thierry

Bonsoir,

Les français nous faisons comment?
----------------
Hi,

The French how we do?

HGT a écrit :Bonsoir,

Les français nous faisons comment?

Oui effectivement

Une traduction simultanée dans le post serait souhaitable, surtout que l'implication de Celesty est remarquable

Sinon, utiliser http://translate.google.fr/?hl=fr

Bonne année a nos amis "Etasuniens"


Gé
----------------------
Yes indeed

Simultaneous translation in the post would be desirable, especially that involving Celesty is remarkable

Otherwise, use [url] http://translate.google.fr/?hl=fr [/ url]

Happy New Year to our friends "U.S. citizens"


Ge

Hello,

This is a good idea to translate our post ,as everyone can participate.

I have some questions for our "oversea" Friends.

Currently, in France and in Europe too, the prices of SHPP increases every day or almost ! and reached more than 10 to 12 times the annual turnover.

I recently discovered a website with SHPP to sell. http://www.utilitywarehouse.com/info2/3 ... whydro.htm

We see that the selling price is also very high (12 times the annual turnover), is it usual for you too ?

We can see also that the selling price of the kwh is not very high (0.068$ = 0.052 €) compared to Europe. Is it the normal price for each SHPP in USA ?

Regards

Thierry


Bonjour,

C'est une bonne idée de traduire le post, ainsi tout le monde pourra participer.
J'ai quelques questions pour nos amis d'outre atlantique.
Actuellement en France et en Europe , le prix des micro-centrales augmente chaque jour ou presque ! et atteint plus de 10 à 12 fois le CA annuel
J'ai découvert récemment un site d'annonces de centrales à vendre au USA. http://www.utilitywarehouse.com/info2/3 ... whydro.htm
On peut voir que le prix est également élevé, est-ce habituel ?
On peut voir aussi que le prix de vente du Kwh, n'est pas très élevé (0.068$ = 0.052 €) comparé à l'Europe. Est ce le prix normal pour les centrales aux USA ?

Cordialement


Thierry

Dear Thierry:

The price of power in the US is between $0.028 and $0.39 per kWh on the open market. We expect it to plummet with the advent of natural gas hydrofracing. The price of natural gas has fallen so low in the US that all of the coal fired power plants are being shut down. In the Eastern United States the wholesale price of electricity exactly correlates to the price of well head natural gas. The US has enough natural gas reserves to burn up our planet Earth 5 times over!!! We recently were offered a 20 year contract for just our energy for a flat rate of $0.74/kWh. We are going to sign the contract!!! This does not include the price for capacity and RECs (renewable energy credits). RECS are new and are currently worth $0.02 to $0.04/kWh. WE are thrilled that President Obama was re-elected. Romney wanted to drill, drill, drill, drill for oil !!!

Here in the Eastern United States small hydro power plants typically sell for 2x to 5x gross annual revenues. Some will be sold at a higher price and some will be sold at a lower price but it is typically 2x to 5x gross annual revenues.

Sincerely, William Fay
--------
Cher Thierry:

Le prix de l'électricité aux États-Unis se situe entre $ 0,028 et 0,39 $ par kWh sur le marché libre. Nous nous attendons à chuter avec l'avènement de hydrofracing gaz naturel. Le prix du gaz naturel est tombé si bas aux États-Unis que l'ensemble des centrales au charbon les électriques au charbon sont en cours de fermeture. Dans l'Est des États-Unis, le prix de gros de l'électricité correspond exactement au prix du gaz naturel de tête de puits. Les Etats-Unis a suffisamment de réserves de gaz naturel de brûler jusqu'à notre planète Terre 5 fois plus! Nous avons récemment été offert un contrat de 20 ans juste pour notre énergie pour un taux forfaitaire de 0.74/kWh $. Nous allons signer le contrat! Cela ne comprend pas le prix de la capacité et les CER (crédits d'énergie renouvelable). CER sont nouveaux et sont actuellement en vaut 0,02 $ à 0.04/kWh $. Nous sommes très heureux que le président Obama a été réélu. Romney voulait percer, forer, percer, forer pour du pétrole!
Ici, dans l'Est des États-Unis de petites centrales hydro-électriques se vendent généralement à 2x à 5x revenus annuels bruts. Certains seront vendus à un prix plus élevé et certains seront vendus à un prix inférieur, mais il est généralement 2x à 5x revenus annuels bruts.

Cordialement,

good to have another point of view out of france
thank you

je trouve ca plutot pas mal d'avoir un point de vue extérieur
merci

Cher Thierry:

Our 1000 kw generator at our Turners Falls site blew one of the 5000 volt stator coils. The generator was too big to fit through the powerhouse doors. We had Leppert-Nutmeg rewind the unit. They had to rewind the stator in place. During the preliminary inspection of the rotor we discovered that after 92 years of continuous use, the bearing journals were no longer round. We have a Poreba engine lathe that will turn a 13 centimeter diameter shaft by 10.5 meters long. We needed to press the rotor shaft out of the generator rotor in order to fit it into our lathe. We chilled the shaft with dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) and gently heated the cast iron hub with an oxyacetylene rosebud torch. We fabricated a hydraulic press from two I-beam strong backs, two large threaded rods and a 50 ton porta-power (portable hydraulic cylinder with pump). We got the porta-power up to 50 tons and the men were afraid and stopped working. I took over and gave it two more clicks on the pump push button. It started moving!!

I went to your web site. It appears that we are doing very similar work. Attached are photos from the Turners Falls generator rebuild. I never got a chance to caption them. I also think they are out of order. Still, I think you will enjoy them:

https://picasaweb.google.com/frenchrive ... gCPmd_7yJ4

Sincerely,

William Fay

PS: I translated this with Google translate. It worked fine but I could not understand how to copy it from the Google translation box. It kept telling me alternative translation when I tried to flag and copy it.