Project

Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant Controls Upgrade

The Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant has provided a significant baseload supply of clean hydroelectric energy to New York since opening in 1961. We are the engineer-procure-construct (EPC) contractor for an extensive electrical control system upgrade and modernization effort designed to maintain performance, reduce failure risks and maximize access to plant data.

The project is part of the New York Power Authority’s largest single investment to modernize and upgrade the plant’s control and electrical protection systems. The overall program will extend the life of hydropower facilities on the Niagara Falls waterway and will enable NYPA to become one of the nation’s first fully digital utilities.

The 14-year effort, called Next Generation Niagra, included this initiative to upgrade the station control systems and electrical protection devices, which largely had been in place since the hydropower plant opened. Our team overhauled the equipment for integrated digital controls without taking the plant offline.

Client

New York Power Authority

Location

Lewiston, New York

Region

Northeast

Services

Electric Power Generation

Plant Services

Instrumentation & Control

Hydroelectric

Industry

Power

Because operations and maintenance activities needed to continue during this process, the plan divided control rooms in half and updated one side at a time. Our team also selected materials that could be installed without excessive dust, disturbances or other strains to the senses. Our architectural design integrates top-of-the-line aesthetics and ergonomics, including lighting levels, acoustics, desk and chair selections, and color schemes.

Upfront engineering of the first phase also incorporated upgrades to the switchyard, helping address security compliance regulations regarding anti-terrorism and NERC-CIP. After that, the team focused on updating the controls and protective relaying for each unit. To avoid reducing the plant’s power output and downtime, each unit is addressed individually.

13

generating units

2,675

MW capacity

Work on the project’s first phase began in late 2019 and includes the first generating unit, the control rooms and several auxiliary systems. When the entire project is complete, the modernized hydropower plant will lead the market by leveraging digital technology to produce power more efficiently, reliably and with more information available.

This extension of the control system’s life includes installation of new digital components for all control facilities and robust new protection schemes to help protect against cyberattacks. We are working exclusively with Emerson, a U.S. market leader in control systems technology. The Robert Moses generating units were upgraded with new redundant protective relays, modern governor controls and an Emerson distributed control system (DCS). The 115-kV and 230-kV switchyard also has a new backup hardwired Emerson DCS, which replaced a SCADA system. The main control room was renovated and a new backup control room was built in an existing building.