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Chelan County PUD crews assemble a temporary structure that will house Rock Island Dam’s Powerhouse 2 parts. 

Crews assemble a temporary structure that will house Rock Island Dam’s Powerhouse 2 parts. 

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Chelan County PUD crews assemble a temporary structure that will house Rock Island Dam’s Powerhouse 2 parts. 

ROCK ISLAND — A first-of-its-kind in Washington state is coming to Rock Island Dam’s Powerhouse 2 — with the refurbishment and/or replacement of its eight horizontal bulb turbine hubs.

The Chelan County PUD is replacing the more than 40-year-old parts with air-lubricated turbines and refurbishing salvagable parts of the old mineral oil-lubricated ones.

The $456 million project is expected to be complete around 2030 and is completely funded by the PUD.

Crews assemble a temporary structure that will house Rock Island Dam’s Powerhouse 2 parts. 

Temporary structures began being placed last week alongside the dam to house turbine parts from each unit, with disassembly expected in November. The parts will be inspected and refurbished or replaced, and combined with new turbines beginning in 2023. The PUD preferred to keep repairs local rather than ship parts elsewhere. Part of the powerhouse’s steel roof was removed in February to access the turbines.

The PUD began several years ago shopping for replacement options for the dam’s aging parts, said Brett Bickford, PUD managing director of transmission and generation. Water- and air-lubricated turbines emerged in Europe, he said, as he attended different forums and learned about it. But it took until around 2016 for the technology to evolve enough for it to last longer than 20 years, which was what the PUD needed, he said. Most oil-lubricated turbines have a 40-year or so lifespan, he said.

The dam’s Powerhouse 2 was built between 1974 and 1979 with the Columbia River’s only eight horizontal bulb turbine generators. The 500-ton apiece units came up the river on barges from France.

Wear on the turbine parts makes it more likely for the mineral oil lubricant to leak, said John Sagerser, manager of engineering and project management. A couple hundred gallons of oil have escaped since the dam’s beginning in 1933, when Powerhouse 1 was built, he said.

Each turbine hub holds about 1,500 gallons of mineral oil, which “is checked for cleanliness, viscosity, and other criteria about every four years,” Sagerser said. “The oil is cleaned up (and reused) and/or replaced as necessary depending on the results of these inspections.”

One brand new hub’s creation began in Turkey in 2021, and will be shipped to Quebec for re-assembly and testing, he said. That hub will be swapped with an existing hub, after which the old hub will be modified for air. That includes adding bushing material needed, teflon/plastic, and discarding the old metal bushing. A leftover hub at the end of the project will be discarded.

“The bushing material is the main difference between an air and oil-filled hub,” he said.

Using air instead of mineral oil as lubricant decreases the chance of oil escaping into the Columbia River, which is more environmentally friendly. Around 10% of the mineral oil in each turbine will remain, but it’s used in separate systems with less spill risk, said Tracy Yount, PUD external affairs director, in a previous interview.

Two new 250-ton capacity cranes — which replaced the old bridge crane at the dam this year — will help lift those turbines and pieces out. The cranes are needed for the giant turbines and generators, as well as other parts. Lifting giant turbines out is a very precise process, with pieces moving within inches of the units’ hatches.

“We’ve got the brightest engineers on this,” Bickford said.

The new equipment began development in 2021, with the PUD contracting with GE Renewable Energy. It’s expected to take about two years from making the first turbine to installing and testing it, with commercial operation starting in mid-2024.

WENATCHEE — Chelan County PUD is pursuing a pilot project that would remove thousands of gallons of oil from its dam turbines, reducing the po…

Feel free to reach out to me with story ideas at 509-861-2174, thornton@wenatcheeworld.com or on Twitter @EmilyK_Thornton.

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