Indian River Power Supply LLC

Indian River Power Supply is located at the Russell Dam formerly owned by the Westfield River Paper Company

Swift River Hydro Operations Company completed its acquisition of the Indian River hydro project in early 2004 when it became the majority owner.  A revised exemption application submitted to FERC on August 3, 2004, was accepted as filed by FERC on December 22, 2004 with all prior deficiencies corrected.  While there was extensive resource agency consultation over two years, FERC issued its environment assessment in December 2006 and then issued a FERC Exemption from Licensing to Indian River Power Supply on February 23, 2007.. .

The Indian River hydro project is located in the town of Russell on the Westfield River about 1.5 miles upstream of Woronoco Hydro (FERC Project #2631) and four miles downstream from Crescent Mills (FERC Project #2986).  The first Russell dam was built on a natural ledge base in 1905 for water power. After spring floods in 1908, a dyke was constructed from the east abutment of the dam that extended upstream about 1,000 feet along a newly constructed forebay and rack house with intake intake gates that prevent inundation of the bordering lowlands. The power plant was built in 1909 by the Russell Falls Paper Company, which later became the Westfield River Paper Company in 1915.  The paper mill  was merged into Simpkins Industries Inc. in October 1989 but retained its name and personnel. Simkins Industries then closed the Westfield River Paper Company in 1994 and Indian River Power Supply LLC (Indian River) purchased its abandoned hydro facilities and related parcels of land along the river in July 1999.

The existing, low head hydro facilities operated continuously from 1909 until 1994, providing power for the paper mill.  Indian River intended simply to restart the installed equipment, but has decided to optimize the use of the flow available at the Russell Dam by installing larger turbines and generators.  Indian River filed an exemption application with FERC which had information deficiencies that were corrected by making additional studies to collect environmental data.  These licensing activities forestalled immediate restoration of the idled hydro plant, while  macroinvertebrate and wetland studies were preformed to collect information needed to mitigate potential impacts.  No significant impacts were identified that would limit full rehabilitation of the hydro facilities, so Indian River filed a FERC amendment to double its capacity to 1.5 MW.

Tailrace view of water cascading over the ledge outcropping that forms a natural dam across the Westfield River

The plant was operating at the time that the Westfield River Paper Company closed in 1994. The hydro facilities survived the record 1938 and 1955 floods. Today, Indian River is protected by two US Corp flood control dams with storage reservoirs at Knightville and Littleville Dams so that the previous flooding risk has been substantially lowered because flood flows in the Westfield River are attenuated.  Indian River will make annual payments for this flood protection.

Indian River began rehabilitation of the hydro station in June 2009 by repowering the existing S. Morgan Smith turbine and preparing to install a larger GE slow speed generator in an effort to begin production with one unit in 2009.  The second unit will be rehabbed during the winter of 2010 and start production after the spring high water season in summer 2010.  Since the site uses less than the historic mean flow of the river, IRPS proposes to replace the existing Francis runners with newer, larger and more efficient runners in rebuilt wicket gate case that operate over a wider range of flows. This will increase Indian River's capability to operate throughout the summer low flow season of the year.  Depending on future green energy sales prices and if Indian River decides to exchange its federal production tax credits, Indian River will qualify for a US Treasury renewable energy grant.  Part of the grant will be used to reduce the long term debt needed to finance construction. The availability of such a federal grant makes it possible for Indian River to expand its capacity to maximize the full potential of the hydraulic resources available at its site.  Indian River purchased two 43" diameter Leffel Type F camelback turbines (each rated at roughly 720 kW at this head), one of which will be installed in the pressure case that now contains an ancient 300 kW Holyoke cylinder gate turbine. Two Leffel runners will be installed in the modified wicket gate cases of the existing S. Morgan Smith camel back unit.  The rehabbed turbines will each power a 800 kVA GE generator purchased in Montana (see photo below).

Note: Indian River is approved to generate Class 1 renewable energy certificates (RECs) by the Connecticut DPUC.  It signed a 10-year agreement with the Mass Green Power Trust Fund to sell its Class 1 RECs at a 10-year fixed price of $38 per REC.  The REC contract supports the long-term financing of this project, which closed on August 31, 2009.  For photos of the construction that is underway, click on the "Progress Report" hot link on the left side of this Indian River web page.

1909 Russell Falls rackhouse & powerhouse seen from downstream below the tailrace

The FERC Exemption requires Indian River to operate the facility as a automated run-of-river hydro project interconnected with Western Massachusetts Electric (WMECO) and selling power into the New England ISO system.  Indian River has worked steadily with the resource agencies to design an effective passage system for fish and eels.  Two downstream Atlantic salmon smolt passage facilities with entrances in the trashracks will be built with holding tanks behind the racks and two pipes leading to the tailrace.  A ladder for American eel will lead juvenile eels from the tailrace up over the dam.  A minimum bypass flow discharge plan has been developed and a Silt Removal Plan was approved by FERC, after consultation with the resource agencies. The plan is for annual cleaning and removal of streambed erosion sediments trapped behind the dam and in the forebay just above the intake gates.  A stoplog gate will be installed in the forebay to dewater the intake for installation of 3/4" overlays on the trashracks twice each year to prevent entrainment of smolt and adult eel .

Indian River owns the entire hydro property within the project boundary, including land between the CSX (Conrail) mainline railroad track and the Westfield River.  It also owns the right bank of the river from below the tailrace pool to a point about a half mile above the Russell dam.  There are no wetlands along this stretch of the river and a few wetland species grow on the edge of Bradley Brook that discharges most of the gravel and silt materials entering the river above the dam.  This material must be excavated periodically in order to prevent silting up the deep discharge gate.  The dam built in 1908 is seen in the foreground in the photo below. It has 2' high flashboards on the west side and 12 inch flashboards on the 180' long east spillway.  The downstream smolt passage facility will be installed in the trashracks on either side of the two active penstock gates in order to leave room for the eel ladder to enter the forebay.  The gross head with flashboards installed is 25 feet.

It is interesting to note that the powerhouse at this site was originally constructed in what is now the middle of the dam. At that time, it was located on the east bank of the Westfield River. However, two major floods washed away the east bank, and a 3 to 4 foot high dam crest was extended across the exposed ledge outcropping another 180' in order to lower the flood height passing over a longer spillway.  Extending the dam crest left the powerhouse in the middle of the river.  The next flood severely damaged the exposed plant, so it was moved to its current location on the eastern shore.  An intake channel was blasted out of the ledge, an intake wall with three intake gates was constructed and a new power plant was built 60' downstream at the end of two 7' diameter steel penstocks.  Shortly thereafter the paper company more than doubled the capacity of the plant from 300 kW to 700 kW by adding a second and larger camelback Francis turbine.

Dam during spring flood; note the Ambursen dam section in the foreground and ledge on the far side

The proposed restoration of the 1909 Russell Falls Hydroelectric plant will utilize structures built in 1909 and in 1920.  The two hydro turbine-generator sets ran continuously until 1994 when the paper mill closed. The structures consist of the concrete gravity dam built by the Ambursen Company in 1908, set on natural ledge, and a 1915 wooden rackhouse, two 7' diameter, 60' long steel penstocks, a concrete powerhouse and 20' deep concrete and ashlar-walled tailrace, all still in structurally sound, intact and usable condition.  The dam crest is approximately 425' in length.  Its greatest height is less than 30' in the tailrace of the first powerhouse. Thus the Russell Dam is classified as a low hazard dam.

The rackhouse and intake gates are located on the left bank.  Not far from the right bank is a deep sluice gate, built into the original dam to drain the impoundment for maintenance or in an emergency.  The entire dam is built on a natural waterfall over ledge that the Boston and Albany railroad bridged to cross the river.  The greatest portion of the dam is only 3' to 5' high on the left bank and 10' to 12' high on the right bank.  A 1979 US Corp of Engineers study of this dam concluded that even if there were a catastrophic failure in the main section of the dam, it removal would not leave a cross-section area sufficient to cause flood damage downstream at Woronoco.

Indian River's wooden rackhouse on left  bank                      The powerhouse is located below the rackhouse

2 General Electric 750 kW generators, purchased from a Montana powerhouse to match the Leffel turbine

Indian River purchased the site in 1999, but waited to proceed with its development while applying for a FERC Exemption. Indian River wanted to determine the fish passage and bypass flow requirements before finalizing the equipment specifications for new turbine quotations.  SRHOCO now plans to refurbish one older Leffel camel back turbine (pictured below) that SRHOCO rigged out of another mill site some years ago. This option will increase output at a reasonable incremental cost and would make significantly better use of the water resource flow available at the site.

Leffel camelback turbine stand with two 43" Leffel Type F Francis turbines outside SRHOCO machine shop

Indian River's hydro facilities are located just below the Russell Dam as shown in the satellite photo below . The project  is a low impact hydro project because the facilities are already established on the site and due to the dam's very low profile because it is built on top of a natural ledge outcropping in the river. There is a very short bypass reach between the toe of the dam and the tailrace pool at the bottom of the granite ledge outcropping. There is no soil on the bare ledge and the pools contain no evidence of habitat value.  Biologists have investigated the possibility of macroinvertibrate habitat in the riffles below the main spillway of the dam, and found no species and particularly, no state-listed endangered species.  The powerhouse is located 60 feet downstream of the intake gates in the rackhouse and is connected by the two existing 7-foot diameter steel penstocks. A new transformer and substation will be installed on the powerhouse roof, above all flood elevations and a 23 kVA tie line has been constructed to connect to the Western Massachusetts Electric Company transmission line located about 600 feet from the powerhouse. This project will be reconstructed in 2009 and 2010.

Satellite image of the Indian River hydro site at the Russell dam on the Westfield River, MA

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