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American Tissue Dam
Before Rehabilitation by Swift River
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Swift River's Mission
Swift River Company (SRC) develops renewable energy resources. As project
manager, Swift River provides the specialized skills, experience and financing to build
and operate hydro in New England. SRC brings all aspects of project
development under one management.
Since 1983, Swift River has managed the Sebec
and Collins hydro projects. Other energy projects developed by SRC in
early years were sold to Consolidated Hydro Inc. (CHI) and to Swift River/Hafslund
(see Prior Projects). However, in
June 2001, Swift River Company purchased
two operating hydro projects from
International Paper Company (IPC). Woronoco Hydro
is located on the Westfield River in Russell, MA and Turners Falls
Hydro draws its Connecticut River flow from the canal at Turners Falls,
MA. For this acquisition, SRC formed a joint venture with D. Hobbs Contracting Inc.
(DHC) to rehab
these units and formed Swift River Hydro Operations
Company (SRHOCO) to operate and maintain all of SRC's and DHC's small hydro
projects. Additional capacity will be designed and installed at
the Woronoco Hydro site as soon
as its FERC license can be amended.
Power from these 2 sites will no longer be used by IPC, but will be sold as "green
energy" to municipal electric companies, to
aggregators or into the New England ISO market.
In September 2001, SRHOCO
acquired D. Hobbs Contracting to bring
experienced design and rehab skills to the team contracted to operate
and maintain other SRC and DHC
hydro projects. SRHOCO
has also expanded by acquiring two former hydro operating companies that are
badly in need of rehabilitation. In May 2004, SRHOCO bought the former
hydro plant at the Pepperell Paper Company on the Nashua River and
formalized its ownership in the Indian River Power Supply project located on
the Westfield River just upstream of the Woronoco Hydro site. That
project is the abandoned hydro plant that until 1994 powered the Westfield River
Paper Company for nearly a century. The award by the Massachusetts
Technology Collaborative (MTC) of a 10-year contract to purchase the
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from Pepperell Hydro Company lead to
the successful financing of an $861,000 loan to completely repower and
automate the Pepperell facility. Without REC sales for Indian River,
the best that can be expected is to put the 300 kW turbine back into
operations. However, with REC sales, that site could be expended to more
than 2 MW. |
Sebec Powerhouse Winter 2000 |
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The
merger of DHC with SRHOCO expanded
the SRC's operations, maintenance and rehab capabilities
for managing and operating new hydro plants. William K. Fay is SRHOCO's
President is a licensed hydro engineer who
has inspected 60 dams for the Massachusetts Dam Safety Division and is
authorized by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to perform
Part 12 inspections of licensed hydropower facilities. He and Davis
Hobbs have rebuilt many hydro turbines for plants located throughout New
England. See DHC's history.
Woronoco Powerhouse
Before Rehabilitation by SRHOCO
Ken Smith, the General Manager of SRHOCO, is
also a registered mechanical engineer with years of powerplant O and M
experience in the Merchant Marines, with SRC and O'Connell Financial
Management. SRHOCO has the tools, equipment and shop facilities
to fabricate and repair hydroelectric equipment,
regardless of its age or design.
Swift River is one of a few surviving small power producers in New
England. As the large electric companies have sold their
generating equipment, most of the smaller private generators have sold their
projects or gone out of business. Swift River is now ready to buy
licensed projects from industries who are shutting down their mills or other
private developers who no longer wish to compete in the lower priced wholesale
market for energy. A trained operating staff with low overheads is the
only way to compete against the large subsidiaries of utilities now buying
up the generating capacity of New England. Natural gas-fired turbines
were thought to be the least cost energy
technology for the region, but this has changed because
international oil prices
remain high and the price of natural gas has
risen.
We believe that stranded costs will be reduced to negligible values as
regional electric prices rise due to international fuel cost escalation. New
England's comparative advantage in renewable energy resources
development like hydro, wind and wood will
soon be re-established to provide low cost energy for power generation.
A balanced
portfolio is still key to stable electric prices in this
region. |
Turners Falls Hydro's GE Generator for vertical Francis
turbine
New turbine ready for installation at
Pepperell Hydro was financed by REC sales |
Contact Information
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