|
| |
Swift River Hydro Operations Company
Purchase and Rehabilitate Projects
SRHOCO is always on the lookout for projects
to purchase or lease in order to upgrade production by
rehabilitation of the equipment and facilities. For over 20 years the principals
of SRHOCO have been engaged
in renewable energy development, engineering, finance and operations. Many of these
projects have been sold to other companies over the years, but all
projects are still generating
renewable energy
today.
The most recent additions to the project portfolio are the Turners Falls and
Woronoco Hydro projects. These two projects are now being
extensively rehabilitated by SRHOCO following their purchase
from International Paper Company in
June 2001, while we await FERC transfer of the
Turners Falls licenses and agency
consultation on an amendment to Woronoco's FERC license renewal.
Concurrently, SRC is negotiating new PPA's for
these two projects. Presently Swift River is
identifying power customers interested in purchasing
renewable "green energy" from these two hydro projects. The historic
monthly output of the Woronoco hydro station during its operation by IPC is shown on the Projects page. Also, on the same page we have projected
the likely monthly output pattern of the Turners Falls hydro if it were to
terminate the Water Exchange Agreement with WMECO and sell all of its generation
to a single customer. The
Energy Sales page includes a graph
of the projected output of the two
projects combined if it
were to be delivered to a single customer.
Key Benefits
- Operating sites often have a captive
energy user that wants to protect its future energy costs from power market
cost escalation such as occurred in California, Texas and New York.
Rehab of an existing on-site facility increases its reliability and
efficiency, thus raising output.
- Rehab by SRHOCO will take the risk out
of operations. SRHOCO will operate the site with experienced, well trained
staff and reduce the cost of maintenance over time. SRHOCO offers
"shared saving" financing to pay for project rehab capital costs.
- Hydro has proven to be the least cost energy
technology in the long-term, but competition from gas turbine technology has
depressed hydro development in recent years due to unusually low international
fossil fuel prices. In the last year, the depletion
of natural gas resources together with OPEC control of oil prices has caused a
rapid energy price increase. Crude oil prices approaching $30/barrel. Hydro is
once again a low cost energy source in New England. Maintenance of regional,
especially on-site hydro facilities is a sound investment.
Capabilities
- Capability 1: Engineering
and Redesign
- Let SRHOCO make a preliminary study of
your hydro site to determine the most cost effective way to redevelop the
facilities. SRHOCO guarantees improved efficiency and lower maintenance
costs in the future. As part of the evaluation, SRC will prepare an
economic proforma to evaluate the value of the site's output in today's
competitive energy market, including sale of green energy certificates.
-
- Capability 2:
Rehabilitation and Testing of Existing Equipment
- SRHOCO's specialty is to make the best use of an
operating hydro project. Not only by rehab of
equipment, but also by automation and remote sensing applied to the equipment,
SRHOCO can insure security and cost effective reuse of older hydro equipment.
If things are beyond repair, then SRHOCO probably has a reconditioned turbine
or generator available.
-
- Capability 3:
Finance and Operations
- Swift River has a track record of successful
project financing, both regional and international. SRC knows how to locate
the right lender or equity financing for renewable energy projects and by its
participation reduces the lender's risk. SRHOCO will then manage the
O&M, using their team of operators and mobile maintenance equipment to keep
the site operating at peak efficiency.
|
