As referenced at a recent public meeting of Deer Lake town council, Corner Brook Pulp and Paper and its parent company, Kruger Inc., will be spending $8.1 million to replace one of the nine penstocks at the hydroelectric power plant this summer.
A portion of the money comes from the $110 million loan the provincial government gave the company, but the project is being cost-shared by the company.
The work on No. 8 penstock is set to start in July and should take 10 weeks to complete, according to Deer Lake Power general manager Larry Marks.
It will be the sixth of the nine wooden-stave penstocks to be replaced with fibre-reinforced concrete piping. The new material being used forms a continuous pipe from the intake high above the plant all the way down to the generators that supply power to the paper mill some 50 kilometres away in Corner Brook
The No. 8 penstock is also one of the two larger pipes in the penstock system.
Because the generator associated with No. 8 penstock will have to be shutdown during the work, the plant will have reduced capacity to produce power. To make up for that shortfall, marks said the company will buy electricity from the Newfoundland Hydro grid until the generator is brought back online.
The other larger penstock, No. 9, along with the remaining two smaller penstocks, namely No. 3 and No. 4, will be fully replaced in the coming years.
“This is an important asset for the company and it needs to be maintained,” said Marks. We think we’re doing a pretty good job of that.”
Marks said the plans also include doing a complete overhaul of the wooden-stave penstock that supplies water to the paper company’s Watson’s Brook generating station located in behind Margaret Bowater Park.
Deer Lake Power will also be doing a complete assessment of its dam, berm structures and other related infrastructure this year and making a plan to do any work identified by that process.
As referenced at a recent public meeting of Deer Lake town council, Corner Brook Pulp and Paper and its parent company, Kruger Inc., will be spending $8.1 million to replace one of the nine penstocks at the hydroelectric power plant this summer.
A portion of the money comes from the $110 million loan the provincial government gave the company, but the project is being cost-shared by the company.
The work on No. 8 penstock is set to start in July and should take 10 weeks to complete, according to Deer Lake Power general manager Larry Marks.
It will be the sixth of the nine wooden-stave penstocks to be replaced with fibre-reinforced concrete piping. The new material being used forms a continuous pipe from the intake high above the plant all the way down to the generators that supply power to the paper mill some 50 kilometres away in Corner Brook
The No. 8 penstock is also one of the two larger pipes in the penstock system.
Because the generator associated with No. 8 penstock will have to be shutdown during the work, the plant will have reduced capacity to produce power. To make up for that shortfall, marks said the company will buy electricity from the Newfoundland Hydro grid until the generator is brought back online.
The other larger penstock, No. 9, along with the remaining two smaller penstocks, namely No. 3 and No. 4, will be fully replaced in the coming years.
“This is an important asset for the company and it needs to be maintained,” said Marks. We think we’re doing a pretty good job of that.”
Marks said the plans also include doing a complete overhaul of the wooden-stave penstock that supplies water to the paper company’s Watson’s Brook generating station located in behind Margaret Bowater Park.
Deer Lake Power will also be doing a complete assessment of its dam, berm structures and other related infrastructure this year and making a plan to do any work identified by that process.
