French River Land Company's Home Page!

The catastrophic flood, that injured our dam, also shorted out our generator. Here we are pulling the Hydrolec unit out of the tailrace. We previously unbolted it from the penstock flange. Before this we poured over 100 cubic yards of concrete to stabilize the dam. It has been a very busy, traumatic and trying fall season!!

Here Celesty and Mike Desrouche have pulled the 480 volt conduits off of the 480 volt primaries. They are inspecting the wires for short circuits.

We have raised the turbine up out of the tailrace. We built a temporary scaffold for Will to work on. We had to pump the oil out of the unit. We then removed the porthole on the end of the turbine bulb. This allowed us to disconnect the high voltage wires from the generator leads.

Will Fay is using a megohmeter to check the primaries for short circuits. We found out that one of the high voltage primaries had short circuited to ground inside the aluminium tube that you can see the wires passing into. This tube was designed to keep the high pressure oil inside the turbine and the water from entering the turbine. It turned out to be a complicated design. We had to destroy it in order to reverse engineer it. It was filled with epoxy. The wires were interrupted by brass cylinders that had been drilled from either end that created blind holes with brass in between. The wires were inserted from either end and silver soldered in place. They were then inserted in the aluminium cylinder and it was filled with epoxy. This elaborate scheme was to prevent the high pressure oil from wicking up the interstices of the cooper wire.

October 6th, 2008. Added Bradway Turbine webpage.

September 30, 2008: I spent a lot of time finishing up our saga about removing the turbines at Livermore Falls, NH. You may thoroughly enjoy perusing the web page:

http://frenchriverland.com/livermore_falls.htm

**************FLASH*********************

September 27th, 2008

On August 7th, 2008 a microburst hit the intermediate drainage area between Golden Pond Hydro's dam and the main dam at Squam Lake. The flood wave heavily damaged our spillway. It took out the catwalk, flashboards, undermined the spillway apron and shorted out the generator leads. We prepared an emergency, dam, repair permit and applied to the New Hampshire Dam Safety and Wetland's Divisions for their permits. The folks at FERC and the New Hampshire State Agencies responded very quickly. They all worked very hard with us to issue the work permits. We have been working non-stop to repair the dam. We had to first install an access road to access the tailrace and toe of the spillway. Once we had the excavator in place, we cleaned out beneath the apron and formed natural concrete forms out of dry laid stone. We cored three 12 inch diameter cores, 24 inches deep, through the floor of the old apron. We pumped 4.5 cubic yards of concrete beneath the left abutment and then poured another 30 yards beneath the spillway apron. We used vibrators to force the concrete beneath the spillway. Our tailrace training wall had been breached. The wall collapsed into the hole that had been piped beneath it. We formed a new wall on top of the old wall. We pumped another 40 yards beneath the old wall and into the new wall, wooden, forms. We leveled the area in front of the old spillway. We laid 100 pieces of No. 5, 20 foot long, 80 ksi rebar. We drilled the front of the old apron and Hilti glued the rebar into the drilled holes. We poured a new extension of the apron in front of the old one. We have poured 96 cubic yards of concrete as of today.

Bill Fay waves at the tourist train that had stopped on the old railroad bridge. This is before we poured the new spillway apron extension. You can see the No. 5 rebar mat.

Please see the attached Picasa album of the destruction and the ongoing repairs.

http://picasaweb.google.com/frenchriverland/GoldenPondDamDamage?authkey=nUCJGifjYLw#

Notes: Please wait for the pages to load. I used high definition j-pegs for all the pictures and documents. When I loaded them into Front Page, I had to shrink them down with the corner cursor. When I shrunk them, they lost resolution!! It seems counterintuitive to me. Anyways, if you want to print any of the materials, download them into a Word document, blow them back up and then print them. You will have excellent results.

There were too many photos on the main web page. The site was loading very slowly! I recently created a previous photos web page and moved some of photos to it.

French River Land's Tannery Pond Site in Winchendon, MA, Will working on governor controls and new disc brake.

French River's Mission

French River Land Company (FRL) develops small and micro hydro resources. As hydro developer, French River provides the unique experience, engineering and craftsmanship to build and operate hydro projects in the Northeast.

FRL was incorporated on February 10, 1992. Since 1992, French River has owned the dormant South Village hydro project. In 1995 it purchased Building 9 in the Ware Mill Complex. In June of 1997 FRL purchased the Tannery Pond Hydro Project in Winchendon, MA. It went on line in June of 1999 to satisfy FERC license requirements. Due to contract negotiation problems, with Templeton Power & Light, it did not commence commercial operations until May of 2004. At that time, Will & Celeste negotiated a new power sales contract, with with the Massachusetts Electric Company. They received their first check from the Massachusetts Electric Company in June of 2004! This was the first cash flow the site had earned in over 50 years!!(see the Tannery Pond sidebar) In December of 2003, Celeste and Will Fay purchased the entire stock of FRL. In March of 2004, FRL purchased Golden Pond Hydro in Ashland, N.H. This site was last operated in June of 2002 when it was badly damaged by a lightening strike. On January 3rd of 2008, Golden Pond Hydro began commercial operations with a signed contract with the Ashland Electric Light Department. It took almost four years, of weekends, to rebuild the badly damaged and thoroughly worn out tube turbine (see the Hydrolec disassembly, Hydrolec Rebuild and Golden Pond Hydro sidebars).

Golden Pond Hydro Powerhouse, Fall 2006

Celeste N. Fay is the President of FRL and her brother, William D.B. Fay is the Vice President. Celeste is a recent graduate of WPI with a BS Degree in Civil Engineering. Will is a senior civil engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Celeste and Will have several years of power plant, O and M experience with D. Hobbs Contracting and Swift River Hydro Operations Company and have worked extensively with their father. FRL has the tools, equipment and shop facilities to fabricate and repair hydroelectric equipment, regardless of its age or design.

Old Sturbridge Village Plant

Will Fay inspecting High Voltage Conduits

William K. Fay P.E., FRL's Chief Engineer and General Manager, is a licensed hydro engineer who has inspected 80 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 his children, Celeste and Will, have rebuilt many small hydro plants located throughout New England.

Celesty jacking the Golden Pond, Hydrolec, Kaplan, Hub down, with a 30 ton, hollow, core ram.

Mary Remington and Will Fay offloading one of four, Rodney Hunt, Hi Test, gatecases. These units are part of a quadraplex, dual camelback unit similar to Jim Beesha's units at Mechanicville, N.Y.

Will and I have been rebuilding the low level outlet at Tannery Pond. Please see the attached Picassa album (click on the box below):

Flash!!! March 12th, 2008, 2:00 PM. We just synchronized Woronoco No. 1 for the first time in 23 years. We got the unit up to full gate and made 460 kilowatts. This was very good considering the tail water stage is elevated by ten feet. The rooster tail coming out of the gorge is so large it is flowing 400 feet across the tailrace pool and hitting the far shore!!!We have been rehabbing the unit for the last nine months. It is better than new!!! Note the disc brake and new hydraulic power pack.

Woronoco No. 1 Rebuild <<<<<<< click on the hyperlink

Celesty and Will getting ready to dive on the forebay at Woronoco HEP. Sand had built up in front of the west rack and the trash rake would not descend to the sill. They cleaned out the sand.

My recent hunting trip to Montana aka: bagging the big horned hydro generator. I just got back from Montana. I was out hunting big horned hydro generators. I bagged four 30,000 pounders. I would stuff them and put them over my mantle piece but I do not think my hearth is strong enough!!! Two of them are being installed at our Indian River HEP. Enjoy!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/frenchriverland/MissoulaMT?authkey=v571LsJtfdk <<<< click on this hyperlink

Removing the Rodney Hunt turbines at Livermore Falls, N.H. Bill Fay is using thermite bars to burn the 3 inch thick cast iron head covers at Livermore Falls. Here the cold of outer space (liquid oxygen at minus 297 deg F) is feeding the fires of hell (OxyAcetylene burns steel at 2500 deg F, the surface temperature of the sun is 16,000 deg F. The tip of the thermite bar runs 8,000 deg F). The thermite bars are consumed like a punk stick. As they burn down the 8,000 deg F gets very close to your hands!! Once they are ignited, we could carve our initials in solid granite. (Livermore Falls<<click here for Livermore Falls)

The beast exposed!!! One of these runners and gate cases we installed at Pioneer Hydro in Ware. MA. A second was installed at Tannery Pond in Winchendon, MA.

Celesty, at the edge of the abyss. She is operating the mini electric hoist at Golden Pond Hydro. We had a balance weight loosen up and our worst scenario come true. We needed to pull our bulb unit in the middle of a New Hampshire winter. Every thing slows down a 5 below zero.

In order to get the forty foot lift from the gantry I-beam to the tailrace floor, we had to hook three chain falls in series. The five ton falls took the weight of the unit. The one ton falls were used as trim control.

Will is a contortionist!! We have just separated the unit from the penstock. Will is replacing the missing balance weight.

Winter on the Westfield River. Celeste and Ronnie Johnson installing stoplogs in order to drain Woronoco Hydro. Note the main beam is the same one Will is seen cutting in a following photo.

King Tut, "The Supervisor"!! This guy barks out orders like a dog!!!

Will standing on top of the newly installed Hydrolec Turbine. The unit was installed two weeks ago and the paint is already coated with algae! Note how the turbine is bolted to the penstock. Its weight is suspended from the pit walls by four, heavy walled, channel-iron, hanger brackets.

Will is flipping the Hydrolec Unit from, vertical to horizontal, in preparation for lowering it into the abyss. The 18 inch I-beam is cantilevered ten feet off the back wall of the powerhouse. The unit can be rolled, on the trolley, over the tailrace and lowered down to the end of the penstock.

The newly rebuilt, Hydrolec H9H, turbine finally arrives at the Freshwater Hydro Station (aka: Golden Pond Hydro) in Ashland. N.H. Will Fay is attaching the lifting belts and shackles to the crane hook. Lee Nichols of Ashland Electric Light Department is operating the crane. The double drop tractor trailer could not drive down the access road so the unit was moved to this smaller truck. The I-beams and pipe supports for the new installation gantry crane came with the same load.

Will and Celeste rigging the 2000 pound, 18 inch I-beam, for the new gantry, at Freshwater Hydro. Previously, when the unit needed work, George had to hire a 90 ton crane to remove it. After it was repaired, he had the crane back to re-install the unit. Celeste and Will designed the gantry and are now fabricating/installing it.

Will has transferred the load from the three ton chain fall to a 5 ton chain cum-a-long. He removed the chain fall and is lifting the beam closer to the support frame. He has installed a lifting strap around the two beams as a safety. The old railroad bridge is in the background.

Co-conspirators!!! We needed to remove the old wear sleeve from the blade trunion. It was held on by LockTite. In order to remove it, we needed to heat the assembly up to 500 deg F. While Carol was teaching ballet, Celeste and Will snuck the blade into our kitchen. They put the blade in the electric stove and baked it at 500 deg F. I think they may have told Carol that they were baking brownies!!! The high temperature broke the bond and we were able to remove the sleeve.

Will and the four supervisor dogs, taking a hydro break, on the Swift River, in Bondsville, MA. Tsar is flanking Will. King Tut is following. He is boxed in between Queen Cleo and Miss Zoey!

Celesty operating the Milwaukee magnetic base drill. She is installing anchors to fix the rotating field buses to the reconditioned slip rings.

Celesty, Mike and Ian rigging the rebuilt Woronoco No.2 gate case into position. They are re-installing it into the newly grouted pressure casing. Kenny Smith is in the background supervising.

Celesty removing a 60 inch bull gear from a gate lifter shaft. The pinion gear has a broken tooth. The down and dirty method to repair a broken tooth is to drill and tap a row of holes, screw in studs and shape them to an approximate tooth profile with a four inch grinder. The Wizard made a new tooth, milled out the broken tooth, pressed the new tooth into place in a machined slot and then held it in place with three recessed Allen cap screws.

Will white blasting the Golden Pond Hydro Kaplan hub. Note blade trunion bearings covered with plywood covers.

Celesty Fay constructing her first dam at Mill Road. She is two years old here!!! Note the giant baloney curl looped over her left shoulder.

Celesty and Mike Desroche preparing the camel back hump for Woronoco No. 2. Note the freshly, steel lined pressure case. Note the new pins in the rear gatecase.

Celeste removing the old slate switchgear from Thorndike Lower HEP. Celeste has been operating the crane for years. Lance is taking pictures of me taking pictures!

Celeste rigging the Brockway Mills stator into position. This was really quite difficult. The crane dropped the rotor down 60 feet. Then it had to be pulled side ways beneath the powerhouse floor. Celesty has transferred the load from the crane hook to a 10 ton chain fall attached to an eye bolt fixed to the ceiling.

Celeste and Chris Kruger dropping the Brockway Mills rotor through the hatch in the powerhouse roof. The snow progressed into a blizzard. All in a days work!

Celeste and Chris Kruger close quarter rigging the Brockway Mills rotor into position. This rotor weighs in excess of 14,000 pounds. Watch out Celesty!!!!

Contact Information

Telephone: 1-413-244-6445

FAX: 1-413-289-1707

Postal address: P.O. Box 624, Thorndike, MA. 01079

Electronic mail: General mail: wfay@frenchriverland.com
Webmaster: cfay@frenchriverland.com

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Last modified: 10/06/08