Project part of landmark salmon restoration agreement
After more than a decade of dormancy, PPL Maine’s Orono hydroelectric plant on the banks of the Penobscot River is once again producing environmentally friendly energy to benefit the region.
The recommissioning of the Orono plant is expected to generate 20,000 megawatt-hours per year of clean, renewable electricity. It is one of the benefits of PPL’s previously announced agreement with the Penobscot River Restoration Trust, government agencies, private conservation groups and the Penobscot Indian Nation to restore historic runs of Atlantic salmon, shad, river herring and other species of sea-run fish to the river.
“The repowering of the Orono hydroelectric plant is a plus for the environment and the region’s energy needs. This project symbolizes PPL’s commitment to supporting renewable energy and being a responsible corporate citizen in Maine,” said Dennis J. Murphy, vice president and chief operating officer of PPL’s Eastern Fossil and Hydro Generation.
“The plant is running quietly and smoothly adjacent to the Penobscot River, one of Maine’s greatest natural treasures and a source of life-sustaining riches since prehistory,” he said. “Orono will provide enough electricity to power about 1,800 homes.”
“The Penobscot Trust is very pleased to see PPL’s significant investment in the Penobscot’s energy future through the repowering of the Orono dam,” said Laura Rose Day, executive director of the Penobscot River Restoration Trust. “In this project, the goals of maintaining electricity production and restoring historic sea-run fisheries to abundance in the watershed go hand in hand.”
PPL started work in May 2008 to renovate and recommission the Orono plant. It marks part of the expansion of renewable energy output enabled by a landmark agreement between PPL and the Penobscot River Restoration Trust.
Under terms of the agreement, PPL will sell three Penobscot River dams to the trust, which intends to remove the Veazie and Great Works dams and bypass the Howland Dam to open hundreds of miles of the river system to Atlantic salmon and other sea-run fish. The sale agreement is pending approval of federal and state government agencies.
As part of the agreement, PPL in May 2006 expanded the output of its Medway, West Enfield and Stillwater hydroelectric plants in Maine by a total of 10,000 megawatt-hours per year.
The Orono plant stopped producing electricity in 1996 after the failure of its penstocks, large, aging wooden pipes that carried water from the river to the powerhouse. PPL purchased the inoperative plant from the Bangor Hydro Electric Company in 1999 as part of a package of generation and other assets.
The $5.2 million recommissioning project included building a new concrete penstock to direct water to the plant, where it will move turbines and turn the electricity generators.
PPL generates about 40 percent of its electricity from sources that do not emit greenhouse gases. The company is increasing hydro and nuclear generation that does not emit greenhouse gases and improving the efficiency of fossil-fuel units to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide they emit per megawatt generated.
PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL), headquartered in Allentown, Pa., controls or owns more than 12,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to about 4 million customers in Pennsylvania and the United Kingdom.