The New York Power Authority (NYPA) has announced it is nearing the three-quarters mark in a $460 million infrastructure improvement project at its Lewiston Pump Generating Plant in Lewiston.
The multi-year program of upgrades at the Lewiston Plant (LPGP), known as the Life Extension and Modernization program, provide for the gradual replacement of the facility’s 12 pump-turbines and its generator step-up transformers, which date back to 1961 when the Niagara plant first went into service.
The upgrades include substituting new programmable computer controls for the outdated remote terminal units that currently control the generators, as well as replacing manual chart recorders and mechanical controls with state-of-the-art digital displays and human-machine interfaces that allow inputs to be translated as signals for the equipment to perform particular tasks.
The three quarters milestone, which recognizes the completion of the eighth turbine to be replaced and the beginning of work on the ninth pump unit, represents another step in NYPA’s digital transformation.
“Digitizing our control systems is not only paramount to NYPA’s strategy to become the nation’s first end-to-end digital utility, but it also allows us to ensure more reliable power through decentralization of control,” said Gil C. Quiniones, NYPA president and CEO. “By implementing advanced controls that operate a single pump generator unit locally and remotely, the plant can override potential issues with one unit and continue operating while the problem is resolved, ultimately increasing the resiliency and reliability of the plant.”
