ALBANY — Albany’s hydropower plant has generated about $170,000in electric sales since starting operations in 2009, a review ofcity reports shows.
It could produce more. the flow from the Santiam Canal wascascading into the Calapooia River at a prodigious rate on Monday,but based on water rights and regulations, that flow can’t be usedto drive the turbine this time of year, city officials say.
The plant is idle for the summer because, under the terms of thecity’s license, Albany must leave at least 1,100 cubic feet persecond of water in the Santiam River, where the 18-mile SantiamCanal that feeds the plant originates.
The turbine started spinning and producing power in January2009. by April that year the public works department had reportedabout $15,000 in sales.
On Monday the Democrat-Herald checked in with Jeff Kinney,superintendent of the Albany water system, for an update on theelectric plant, which he also supervises.
According to his reports, the generator produced about 934,000kilowatt hours of electricity in fiscal 2010. the output was soldto Pacific Power for about $61,000.
The next year, fiscal 2010-11, production grew to more than 1.4million kilowatt hours, for which Pacific paid the city nearly$93,000.
This budget year so far, the plant operated for only 54 hours inJuly before it had to shut down, yielding about $1,100 insales.
Kinney said the plant was beginning to pay for itself though hedidn’t have figures for the cost of operating it.
The installation cost about $2.2 million, according to the cityin 2009, including $1.6 million to have the 500-kw generator builtin China.
Water from the Santiam Canal drives the turbine that powers thegenerator.
The system replaced one that had operated in the same powerhousesince at least 1925 but had not been used much or at all in the1980s and ’90s.