It’s easy to think that hydropower is something new, but the truth is without hydro, Somersworth as we know it today would not exist. It was a form of hydro power that powered the mills without which Somersworth would likely have never evolved into the industrial hub that it would become by the mid 1800s, thanks to the Great Falls Manufacturing Company (GFMC).
Some might consider that form of hydropower primitive when compared to today’s larger scale operations, but the truth is it was anything but. Water current and levels were controlled to precisely allow the right amount of flow to be delivered to the water wheels so that they would in turn power the spindles that drove the looms which in turn produced the cloth that would put Somersworth on the map.
Unfortunately, by 1920 the desire for textile mills had decreased in the north, ironically in part, because of new found power sources such as electricity, that allowed the southern states to produce the same textiles at a fraction of the cost.
So when in 1929 the GFMC went out of business, it would be Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH) that would purchase the canal, head gates, dams and water rights just as Isaac Wendell had in 1823 when he founded the GFMC.
PSNH would build a hydroelectric generating plant that was capable of generating 3000 kVA. The equipment required to produce that hydroelectricity was housed in a tiny brick building on the side of the Salmon Falls River behind what was then Mill No. 2.
That plant would produce electricity until 1972, when one of the turbine blades, which was essential to the operation of the plant, broke. At the time, PSNH was moving away from smaller plant generations instead preferring larger plants such as the Schiller plant which had just been completed in Portsmouth as well as the nuclear power plant in Seabrook which was due to go on line in 1979. Part of that reason was that unlike the smaller plants, such as the one in Somersworth, which were dependent on water flow which was often erratic depending on the season, the larger plants consistently produced electricity.
So it was in 1979, that PSNH would choose to decommission the plant as opposed to fixing the turbine. It was at that time that General Electric (GE) would step in, purchase the building and rehab it as a wastewater treatment plant. If you are thinking this is the end of hydro power in the city, you would be wrong.
Apparently GE had been evaluating the possibility of rehabilitating the power station since 1977. The decision was made to do just that and involved GE buying the canal, gate house, 2 dams, the penstock (more on that later) and the water rights. It would also require installing a new 1530k generator and turbine as well as obtaining a license from FERC, which in itself was a huge undertaking. It was a process that would take six years to come to fruition, but in the spring of 1982 it was approved. The project had an estimated cost of $3 million attached but at the time energy costs were soaring and it made sense for GE to be able to produce some of its own power from a source that would essentially cost the company nothing.
The project was completed in 1983 and immediately began to save the company money. In 1989 a smaller generator was brought on board and this would also prove to be cost effective. This smaller generator required less water flow to operate and although the initial cost of bringing it on board was around $1.5 million it paid back dividends over time. That was until 2013 when a series of needed repairs would take the plant offline and it would sadly not return in part due to environmental concerns, but also as it turned out General Electric who had been downsizing the Somersworth plant for many years had decided to relocate all its business elsewhere.
Although General Electric no longer owns the building and its future is still unknown, the hydro power plant is still there and the turbines could turn once more if someone so wished. Before I close this week’s column, there are a couple of things that I think are important to note here:
1: The Somersworth plant, when under GE’s ownership, was the only one in the world owned by the corporation that was powered at least in part by hydro electric.
2: The penstock is the pipe that is found underground and is around 10 feet in height. The pipe sits at the opposite end to the gate house and drops 62 feet. The water flow that is generated is what powers the turbines which in turn powers the generators.
No one knows if the plant will ever come online again but the fact that for so many years the water that is the lifeblood of any city was capable of producing on average 6 million kWh a year, which according to an article written by Bruce Derr if produced by traditional sources would result in the annual emission of 2000 tons of carbon dioxide.
So there you have it, but there is more to the tale of hydro power and clean energy in Somersworth as I will tell you soon.
Until next week, be kind to one another as you never know what someone else might be going through.