Jonathan and Jayne Chase of Derby are investigating the possibility of bringing the Bakers Falls hydroelectric dam back into operation. Located along the Missisquoi River in Troy, the 600-kilowatt plant, formerly operated by Citizens Utilities, has been out of operation since 1998. Photos by Richard Creaser
TROY — Jonathan and Jayne Chase are attempting to undo what one flood and 11 years of neglect have done to the hydro generation facility at Bakers Falls in Troy. The couple purchased the dam last year and has begun the labyrinthine process of seeking a preliminary Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license to bring the old plant back online.
The preliminary license, good for three years, is a precursor to a full operational license, should the project move forward.
“If it was just a matter of acquiring the land, purchasing the equipment and getting it up and running, that would have been done already,” Mr. Chase said in a telephone interview on Monday. “We’re looking at three years and $165,000 just to do the studies and complete the application before we can even think about generating a single kilowatt of electricity.”
On April 14 the Troy hydroelectric project received a $48,375 grant from the state’s Clean Energy Development Fund to help with the cost of the feasibility study and licensing. While grateful for the investment of public money, Mr. Chase remains skeptical about a process that requires so much money for so little positive gain.
“The money comes from the taxpayers and goes to us so that we can give it to consultants,” Mr. Chase said. “All of this money is being spent because FERC needs the documentation that proves what every expert we’ve worked with has told us just by looking. Anyone with expertise in hydro development who has seen the site has agreed that there isn’t a more perfect site for this kind of thing.”
The Bakers Falls dam is a piece of the former Citizens Utilities generation assets transferred to Great Bay Hydro. The original power plant was in
The Bakers Falls hydroelectric power plant in Troy has been out of operation since flooding in 1998 damaged it.
operation for nearly a century before a flood in 1998 damaged the controls in the powerhouse. At its peak, the 600-kilowatt generator produced an annual output of 1,500 megawatt-hours of electricity. Citizens never bothered to bring the plant back online.
“Citizens basically neglected the plant,” Mr. Chase said. “The turbines were installed back in 1930 and, if they could have bothered with minimal maintenance and if not for the flood, they would probably still be operating today.”
Mr. Chase is examining one of two possibilities for the plant. The first option is to rehabilitate the old turbines and couple the retrofit with the installation of modern power management computers and systems. While this option would be the cheapest, it is not necessarily the best, he said. This option would fail to maximize the potential inherent in the site.
The second proposal would involve upgrading the power management system and the installation of a modern one-megawatt generator. At peak capacity the plant would produce 3,200 megawatt-hours of power annually, enough power for 1,000 homes.
“It’s not like we have to wait for some magical technology to come along to allow this to happen,” Mr. Chase said. “The technology exists. I don’t see attracting capital being a problem. It’s just a matter of getting through the bureaucratic process to get to that point.”
Preliminary estimates on a complete upgrade are in the neighborhood of $1-million to $2-million. That investment would in turn allow the plant to operate for perhaps another 60 to 70 years with only routine maintenance to the equipment, Mr. Chase said.
The benefits of putting the plant back in operation are legion. Mr. Chase estimates that running this hydro plant would offset 2,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually. In addition, a local power plant provides greater stability to the transmission system and affords some of the lowest cost power with minimal impact on the environment.
“I want this to be a model site,” Mr. Chase said. “I don’t want to be an environmental pariah.”
Ironically, global warming, the environmental factor the plant would most help mitigate, is the very factor that makes such a project most worthwhile. Global warming is projected to result in warmer winters and wetter summers throughout New England, Mr. Chase said. Those atmospheric conditions should enable the plant to operate at peak capacity for a greater portion of the year. It limits the amount of seasonal variation in the flow of the Missisquoi River on which the plant is located.
“If you’re going to generate electricity you’ve got to have the fuel,” Mr. Chase said. “You gotta have mountains and you gotta have rain and we have both of those.”
The development of hydro projects, even projects at sites that once hosted them, often pits the developer against environmental groups that seek to preserve the integrity of rivers and lakes. What often gets overlooked is how doing nothing will have a greater long-term negative effect than resuming hydroelectric generation.
“Running this plant means you minimize the amount of power you need to produce with dirty coal-powered plants,” Mr. Chase said. “Not only are you reducing the emissions from generation, you are also cutting back on the environmental impact of getting that coal out of the ground and trucking it to the plant to burn. By blocking hydro projects the fish these environmental groups are working so diligently to save end up being so full of mercury you can’t eat them anyway.”
As frustrating as the process has been so far — and the re-licensing process is one that Mr. Chase expects to last up to three years — he has been buoyed by the support of neighbors and area politicians.
“So far I haven’t had anyone attack me and say I was doing a horrible thing,” Mr. Chase said. “That would be a bummer. But I really believe that what we are trying to do has value socially and economically.”
The Troy hydro project is not Mr. Chase’s first entrepreneurial foray. His most recent endeavor was to create a sustainable organic dairy operation at his home in Derby. Working to develop a hydro dam has actually proven easier than establishing his dairy farm, he said.
“I’m not the kind of person who can look at our energy situation and our environmental situation and say someone else ought to do something about it,” Mr. Chase said. “I’m putting years of hard work on the line because I really believe this project is economically viable and socially responsible.”
