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The
fully automated plant has been operating
since 1996.
"We
got a contract from Nova Scotia Power to
supply them with power for 33 years. At
the end of that time we'll negotiate for a
new contract," Mr. Mason said.
The
plant temporarily ceased operations in
early April after a flood on the river -
it killed two people trapped in their car
when it was swept into the raging water -
shorted out the transformer. A new unit
was ordered.
The
$40,000 transformer, its $20,000
installation and the $30,000 the company
lost when the plant shut down is covered
by insurance, Mr. Mason said.
The
new transformer will convert 4,160 volts
to 25 kiloVoltAmps, a measure of the power
of a transformer in thousands of volts.
The plant's 750-kilowatt generator
produces about three million kilowatt
hours a year.
In
a dry year, the plant's annual revenue is
about $250,000. It's about $50,000 higher
in a wet one.
"This
is what's called a run-of-the-river power
station. There's no dams, nothing that's
backing the water up," Mr. Mason
said.
"Most
conventional power plants on rivers have
large dams that hold back the water and
they release it gradually. . . . Here we
can only take what we can use."
 And
that's a good thing for the environment.
Morgan Falls Power accepted the challenge
of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by
providing emission-free electrical energy
and has Environment Canada's EcoLogo
certification to prove it. The green-power
logo is granted to small run-of-the-river
hydroelectric power sources, among others
such as solar and wind power, that have
superior environmental performance.
The
downside is when water levels at the falls
drop, the plant shuts down. In summer, the
closure can last for months at a time, Mr.
Mason said.
To
operate at capacity, the volume of water
coming over Morgan Falls must be at least
12 cubic metres per second, a minuscule
amount compared to the 3,000 cubic metres
per second that rush over the edge of
Niagara Falls.
Morgan
Falls Power is the first and so far the
only hydro plant in Nova Scotia to receive
the EcoLogo seal of approval.
The
federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans
maintains a fish ladder on the other side
of the river that allows salmon, eel and
gaspereau, among others, to migrate to
spawning beds upstream and that also
allows the fish to be counted.
"We
had to put in a pretty sophisticated
protection system (in the hydro plant) so
the fish wouldn't be sucked down to the
turbine and killed," Mr. Mason said.
A
louvre system in the fore bay keeps the
fish safe. It also lets DFO personnel
study their downward passage.
"Because
of the information they were getting from
this site over the first couple of years
that we were in production, they decided
that they would like to have a permanent
facility so we worked with them to design
one."
Except
for some cosmetic touches, the
fish-assessment facility is finished.
At
about the time construction began two
years ago, the company replaced its
turbine.
"We
had a prototype turbine in to start that
didn't work very well," Mr. Mason
said, pointing to a bulky lawn ornament at
the site.
"It's
a conversation piece. . . . It makes it
easy to explain how turbines work."
The
company bought the prototype and the new
turbine with a loan from Natural Resources
Canada.
The
owners of Morgan Falls Power are also
partners in Seaforth Engineering Group
Inc., a Dartmouth company dedicated to
renewable energy development.
The
LaHave River rushes over the edge of
Morgan Falls in New Germany, the site of
the Morgan Falls Power Co. |
