May 6, 2009 - Brookfield Renewable Power's Rumford Falls Acheives LIHI Certification

 

Portland, Maine (May 6, 2009)–The Low Impact Hydropower Institute (LIHI) announced today that the Brookfield Renewable Power’s (“Brookfield” or Applicant)  Rumford Falls Hydroelectric Project on the Androscoggin River in Rumford, Maine has earned LIHI’s Low Impact Certification.   The effective certification date is December 10, 2008. LIHI certification means that the hydropower facility has been found to meet or exceed the Institute's Certification Criteria which address eight key areas: river flows, water quality, fish passage and protection, watershed protection, threatened and endangered species protection, cultural resource protection, recreation, and facilities recommended for removal. Certification is designed to provide consumers with assurance that a facility has avoided or reduced their environmental impacts pursuant to the Low Impact Hydropower Institute’s criteria.  The Board’s vote to certify the project was unanimous.
 
 
Project Description
 
The Rumford Falls Project consists of two discrete hydropower developments, the Upper Station Development and the Lower Station Development. The upper station and the lower  station developments each have a total installed nameplate capacity of 26.55 MW and 12.8 MW, respectively, totaling 39.35 MW; the project's maximum hydraulic capacity is 7,300 cubic feet per second (cfs); and the average annual project generation is about 270,302 MWh. 
               
Upper Station Development - The Upper Station Development consists of:
 
1) a concrete gravity dam, having a 464-foot-long by 37-foot-high ogee type spillway section, with a crest elevation of 598.74 feet U.S. Geological Survey datum (USGS), topped with 2.5-foot-high, pin-supported, wooden flashboards;
 
2) a forebay about 2,300 feet long by 150 feet wide;
 
3) a gatehouse with eight headgates, (two headgates for each of the four penstocks), trashracks, and other equipment;
 
4) four underground steel-plate penstocks, each about 110 feet long, three of which are 12 feet in diameter, and one 13 feet in diameter;
 
5) a masonry powerhouse integral with the dam, occupying two adjoining sections of the dam: the Old Station, about 30 feet wide by 120 feet long by 92 feet high, equipped with one horizontal generating unit with capacity of 4,050 kilowatts (kW), and the New Station, about 60 feet wide, by 140 feet long, by 76 feet high, equipped with three vertical generating units--two with capacity of 7,650 kW each, and one with capacity of 7,200 kW;
 
6) an impoundment, with gross storage capacity of 2,900 acre-feet, surface area of about 419 acres, normal maximum headwater elevation of 601.24 feet, and
            tailwater elevation of 502.74 feet.
 
Lower Station Development- The Lower Station Development consists of:
 
1) a rock-filled, wooden-cribbed, and concrete-capped Middle Dam, having a 328.6-foot-long by 20-foot-high gravity spillway section, with a crest elevation at 501.74 feet, topped with 1.0-foot-high pin-supported wooden flashboards;
 
2) a Middle Canal concrete headgate structure, located adjacent to the dam, about 120 feet long, with 10 steel headgates, and a waste weir section perpendicular to the headgate structure, about 120 feet long, with a crest elevation of 501.6 feet; topped with 10-inch-high flashboards;
 
3) a Middle Canal, about 2,400 feet long, with width ranging from 75 to 175 feet, and depth from 8 to 11 feet;
 
4) a gatehouse containing two headgates, trashracks, and other equipment;
 
5) two 12-foot-diameter, steel-plate penstocks, each extending about 815
feet to two cylindrical surge tanks, each about 36 feet in diameter by 50.5 feet high, and the penstocks continuing 77 feet to the powerhouse;
 
6) a masonry powerhouse, equipped with two identical vertical units each 6,400 kW capacity; and,
 
Brookfield Renewable Power operates the project in a run-of-river mode for the protection of water quality and aquatic habitat. Water levels in the upper and middle impoundments are maintained within 1.0 foot of full pond elevation.