Mechanicville hydro plant gets new life | Albany Times-Union - Kathleen Moore:
July 7, 2021 - "A hydroelectric plant with a historic claim to fame was nearly dismantled. Now it's been nominated for national engineering landmark status. 'We think this is the oldest renewable energy facility in the world that’s still running,” said Jim Besha Sr., CEO of Albany Engineering Corp., which owns the Mechanicville hydroelectric station [in Saratoga co., New York - gd]. They can no longer say it has been in continuous operation since it was built in 1897. But it’s working now, after years spent rebuilding a plant that was abandoned by National Grid.
"Despite getting the plant back to full power, there's not a lot of profit in running a plant that still uses all of the original 1800s machinery. That's why some of the plant's energy is now being used to produce bitcoin. 'We can actually make more money with bitcoin than selling the electricity to National Grid,' Besha said. Albany Engineering Corp. gets 3 cents per kilowatt hour when it sells energy to National Grid. Mining bitcoin, an electronic currency, makes three times as much money, Besha said.
"'It’s the best (type of bitcoin mining) because we’re using renewable energy,' Besha said. “We’re just doing it on the side, experimenting with it. We're buying used servers.' He converts the thousandths of a bitcoin they make each week to cash, rather than holding onto it.... One bitcoin is ... worth about $33,000 [as of July 2021 - gd]....
"It all started in 1986, when National Grid asked Albany Engineering Corp. to refurbish and operate the plant, which provides power to two 2-megawatt transformers.... They signed a contract and he started the preservation work, while also applying for an independent license to operate the plant ... [which] finally was approved in 1993. Throughout that time, the plant was producing power that was sold to National Grid for a price under market rate, as agreed to in the contract.
"But when Besha got the license, he learned that National Grid’s plans had changed.... 'National Grid called me up the next day and said, we’re not going to honor this contract. And if you don’t like it, take it to the judge,' Besha said. National Grid wanted to dismantle the old, small plant instead....
"Besha sued. It took 10 years to reach a settlement. But one of the first things Besha had done, when his company started work on the plant in 1986, was to get the plant listed on the National Register of Historic Places. That listing kept the plant from the wrecking ball while the case wound its way through the court system. Historic preservationists joined the fight, insisting that the structure be saved even if it couldn’t be used anymore. In the meantime, the plant itself began to fall apart. National Grid refused to buy the power during the dispute, and eventually Albany Engineering Corp. couldn’t run it anymore....
"In the end, National Grid agreed to give up the plant, pay for repairs to help with damaged incurred during the long court case, and to pay market rate for the power produced there, an increase over what they had contractually agreed to pay. On Aug. 6, 2003, Albany Engineering Corporation moved back in and surveyed the damage. They had to redo everything they'd done two decades earlier.... It took 30 days to get the plant running again and years to rebuild everything that had been damaged....
"Now, the plant has been nominated for landmark status in three different types of engineering: civil, electrical and mechanical. That will add to the National Register protection to keep the plant intact for, possibly, centuries to come, Besha said."
Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Mechanicville-hydro-plant-gets-new-life-16299115.php
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