HydroVision Preview: Sneak Peek at the Show Floor

Many exhibitors are already signed up to showcase their products and services in the exhibit hall at HydroVision International 2013 in Denver, Colo. This article provides advance information about some of these companies and what they have to offer.

By Elizabeth Ingram

Although the 2013 HydroVision International event in Denver is not taking place until next July, we believe now is the perfect time to begin providing you with information on some of the companies exhibiting at this largest hydroelectric industry event in the world. This is in part because we recently learned that our event had the honor of receiving not one but two awards from Trade Show Executive magazine.

Trade Show Executive‘s Fastest 50 Awards honor the fastest-growing shows in the trade show industry. HydroVision International 2011 received recognition for net square feet of exhibit space sold and for number of participating exhibitors. In 2011, HydroVision International’s exhibition featured 318 exhibitors showcasing products and services in more than 50 categories, including mechanical and electrical equipment, engineering services, dam safety and civil-related technology and environmental consulting.

Marla Barnes, publisher of PennWell Corporation’s Hydro Group, says, “HydroVision International’s growth reflects the strength of this industry and the commitment of the companies that serve it.” To illustrate some of this strength and commitment, we are providing a random sampling of exhibitors who will feature their products and services at HydroVision International, July 23-26 at the Colorado Convention Center. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but it is a dynamic group that represents a broad cross-section of the hydro industry and may help you plan now to attend this vital industry event.

ABB Inc.

This company supplies a range of products for hydropower, including integrated instrumentation, control and electrical solutions and complete electromechanical packages for water-to-wire projects. Recently, ABB was awarded a contract worth about $55 million by Canadian provincial utility BC Hydro to increase the transmission capacity of new and existing power lines in anticipation of a surge in demand for electricity in the coming decades.

AFI Hydro Inc.

AFI Hydro designs, manufactures and installs water control gates and ancillary equipment for hydroelectric generation in Canada. It specializes in custom-designed intake, radial, sluice, and tailrace gates, as well as embedded parts, hoisting equipment and towers, cranes and trashracks. The company marked its 20th anniversary by unveiling a new website that highlights its design, build and installation capabilities.

ASL AQFlow Inc.

The company specializes in flow measurement at low-head, short-intake hydropower plants using an acoustic scintillation flow meter and also provides numerical simulations in hydro plant forebays and tailraces. Most recently, the company has performed work at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ 2,457.3-MW Chief Joseph project, and before that on two plants owned by Electricite de France.

Canadian Hydro Components

A manufacturer of custom-designed water-to-wire equipment packages for low and medium head hydro projects, CHC provides axial flow Kaplan and Francis turbines. The company has a Fortus FDM Maxum rapid prototyping machine to produce three-dimensional thermoplastic turbine prototypes, as well as a Toshiba BTU-14 universal machining center to eliminate multiple setups previously required when machining complex-shaped components such as turbine distributors and blades.

Dix Corp.

Dix provides construction and rigging techniques, turbine runner rebuilds, marine construction, equipment dismantling and reinstallation, equipment installation, and heavy rigging and transport. It also manufactures cranes and fish guidance systems. One recent project the company worked on is removal and disposal of the top spill bulkhead from the upstream side of Gate 12 at the 1,038-MW Wanapum project.

Duramax Marine

The company offers a variety of marine products, including Duramax Johnson Cutless and Duramax Advanced water-lubricated bearing, shaft sealing, heat exchange and impact protection systems. The company’s water-lubricated bearings use rubber formulations that perform in harsh working environments.

Eaton Corp.

Eaton supplies customized hydraulic solutions and turnkey installation services to the hydro, oil, gas industries, solar and wind industries. For hydropower, the company provides balance-of-plant, turbine governor control and gate control systems. Eaton recently was awarded a $10.9 million contract to design, manufacture, install and commission unit control boards and governor controls for upgrade of the Niagara Power Project’s Lewiston Pump Generating Plant.

Flow Science Inc.

Flow Science specializes in transient, free-surface computational fluid dynamics modeling software for industrial and scientific applications. It recently was selected by the New York Power Authority to provide water flow simulation software for various hydropower plants in New York. NYPA will use the company’s software to enhance its modeling capabilities for its 2,755-MW Niagara Power Project and eventually expand its user to other projects and facilities.

Fugesco Inc.

The company designs, develops and manufactures mechanical seals up to 4 meters in diameter for all types and sizes of hydroelectric turbines and pumps. These include radial and axial seals. Complete packages it supplies include filtration systems, control panels, monitoring devices and all related equipment.

Generadores Mexicanos S.A. de C.V.

Based in Monterrey, Mexico, Genermex, provides a variety of services to the power generation industry, including generator inspection, testing, rewinding and repair, as well as other maintenance, installation and repair. It also manufactures high-voltage coils and wedges, filler strips and winding accessories. Recent work it has performed includes upgrading two generators at Comision Federal de Electricidad’s 960-MW Infiernillo hydro plant on the Balsas River.

Hydro Tech Inc.

Hydro Tech provides specialized technical services and engineering solutions, including thrust and guide bearing studies, refurbishments, retrofits and supply, condition assessments for generators and turbines, hydromechanical engineering services, turbine and generator maintenance programs and refurbishments, turnkey unit overhauls and commissioning. and diagnosis and troubleshooting of mechanical malfunctions.

Hydrothane Systems

The company specializes in the engineering, design, manufacture and implementation of non-metallic intake products, such as trashracks and fish screens. These polyethylene structures provide resistance to frazil ice, marine growth, rust and corrosion. In addition, they are 75% lighter than steel and feature ultraviolet protectors to extend longevity. Hydrothane products have been installed at 38-MW School Street in New York and 192-MW Chats Falls in Ontario, Canada, among others.

Hyundai Ideal Electric Co.

Hyundai Ideal Electric is a manufacturer of generator, synchronous motors and associated controls for the hydro, oil, gas, industrial and utility industries. The company has supplied more than 200 small hydro projects with 800 MW of installed capacity throughout the world. Hyundai Ideal Electric supplied a synchronous generator with exciter for development of Snohomish County Public Utility District’s 7.5-MW Youngs Creek project in Washington State.

Integrated Power Services

This company specializes in single-source turnkey solutions for hydroelectric generators, including field and engineering services and in-house manufacturing of stator coils up to 15 kV. Integrated Power Services offers a full spectrum of electrical tests, including EL CID, corona probe, MCE, polarization index, surge, hipot, and partial discharge. One example of the company’s work is machining of brake rings and hydro shafts for a 75-MW generator at the Douglas County Public Utility District’s 774.3-MW Wells project.

Iris Power LP

Iris Power, headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, provides products and services to improve maintenance capabilities for large motors and generators throughout the world. Its hydro generator assessment work includes determining the condition of stator winding insulation using on-line and off-line partial discharge test equipment and endwinding vibration monitoring, detecting shorted stator laminations using an off-line EL CID instrument, and offering a Flux line to detect rotor winding insulation problems.

Johnson Machine Works Inc.

The company provides custom fabrications for customers such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation. Recent examples of its work include fabricating two miter gates for the Corps’ Meldahl Locks and Dam. The gate leaves weighed about 250 tons each. Another example is fabrication and delivery of a dam bulkhead and lifting beam for Council Grove Dam. The bulkhead was 10 feet wide by 20 feet high and weighed about 14,000 pounds.

Kleinschmidt Associates

Kleinschmidt Associates is an engineering, licensing and environmental services firm offering specialized technical services to the renewable energy industry. The company specializes in hydroelectric and marine renewable energy, including wave and tidal and offshore wind. Kleinschmidt was the structural designer for the work to add a 4.4-MW powerhouse to the existing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Jordan Dam, a flood storage dam in North Carolina.

Klohn Crippen Berger Ltd.

The company offers full engineering and environmental services for hydroelectric projects, with design experience ranging from a single-unit 7-MW project in Canada to a multi-unit 1,074-MW project in Laos. The company’s recent hydro work includes comprehensive engineering and support for the 1,100-MW Site C project on the Peace River in Canada and design of a 7-MW run-of-canal plant in southern Alberta, Canada.

MWH Americas

The company offers planning, design, construction management and operation of hydropower facilities and dams. Recent work includes analysis of seismic and hydraulic issues at Big Tujunga Dam, owned by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, to confirm deficiencies in the safety of the dam and identify alternatives to correct the problem. A complete rehabilitation of the dam was completed in January 2011.

North American PTFE Bearing LLC

The company supplies bearings lined with polytetrafluoroethylene, with about 900 installed worldwide. Facilities at which this technology has been delivered this year include Brookfield’s 47-MW Andrews on the Montreal River system, Algonquin Power’s 2.6-MW Riviere du Loup in Quebec, Green Mountain Power’s 3-MW Gorge Plant #18 in Vermont, and Ontario Power Generation’s Sir Adam Beck 1.

Ohmsett

Ohmsett provides outdoor saltwater wave and tow tanks in North America and is designed to evaluate the performance of full-scale and meso-scale equipment under realistic but safe environmental conditions. The Ohmsett tank is equipped with three movable bridges with tow speeds up to 6 knots and programmable to simulate ocean current flow. Devices that have been tested at this facility include Resolute Marine Energy’s second-generation SurgeWEC prototype, which underwent scale-model tank tests in June 2011.

Oregon Iron Works Inc.

The company is a structural fabricator for a variety of industries, including hydropower and other renewables. It has worked on the fabrication of Ocean Power Technologies’ PowerBuoy wave energy converter, supplied gates and trashrack equipment for development of the 84-MW Cannelton project under construction in Kentucky, and supplied temporary spillway weir stoplogs for 2,160-MW John Day Dam in Oregon.

Panolin AG

This company, based in Switzerland, develops, produces and markets rapidly biodegradable lubricants, such as HLP Synth for hydraulic applications, Turwada for turbines, and Biogrease for greasing of turbine guide vane bearings. In addition, the company provides consulting services and custom-tailored lubricants for special applications.

Paul C. Rizzo Associates Inc.

Paul C. Rizzo Associates specializes in all aspects of civil engineering and earth sciences for the dams, nuclear power and tunneling markets. In a recent hydroelectric application, the company worked with AmerenUE to prepare a dam performance and instrumentation report intended to document and evaluate the performance of the Taum Sauk Upper Reservoir Dam and instrumentation during refill of the reservoir for this 450-MW pumped-storage facility in 2011.

Pioneer Motor Bearing Co.

Pioneer Motor Bearing provides original equipment manufacturers and end users bearing engineering, manufacturing and repair expertise to help design, build, maintain and upgrade large rotating equipment. The company’s new spinning machine for large journal bearings is one of the largest in North America, with a maximum outside diameter of 127 inches, a length of 60 inches and a weight of 24 tons.

Power Equipment Maintenance Inc.

The company provides hydroelectric turbine/generator mechanical field services, including hydro unit overhauls, repairs, outage support, maintenance and inspections. Power Equipment Maintenance has provided services at many plants, including unit inspections, maintenance and turnkey project services for turbine/generator overhauls and upgrades at PPL Corporation’s108-MW Holtwood facility on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.

Seals Unlimited Inc.

The company owns and manufactures the Huntington brand rubber gate seal line for lock and dam, water works, irrigation, fish mitigation and flood protection projects. Seals Unlimited also has diversified rubber part molding capabilities and manufactures rubber extrusions offering an in-house die shop and water jet cutting support and an inventory of commonly used compounds The company also carries a complete line of adhesives, greases and lubricants.

SKF Economos GmbH

SKF provides customer engineered sealing solutions for the hydropower industry among many others. For this industry, the company produces special sealing solutions and large-diameter seals in small to medium quantities using its unique manufacturing system. This features CNC lathe production of seals with a diameter from 4 mm to 4,000 mm as a single piece with a virtually unlimited range in diameter of welded seal profiles.

TES VSETIN s.r.o.

This Czech company manufactures electric machines, specializing in hydroelectric and wind power generators, providing solutions to electric power generation, AC motors and drives, servicing, and repairs and refurbishments of small plants up to 15 MW. Other services include design and manufacture of electric drives, testing blocks, switchboards, and measurement and control systems. TES VSETIN is providing generators to projects in Chile, France, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and Turkey.

Thompson Metal Fab Inc.

The company has worked on many hydro projects in the Pacific Northwest, supplying gates, spillway weirs and bypass systems. These facilities include 866-MW Rocky Reach, 810-MW Lower Monumental, 855-MW Priest Rapids, 603-MW Ice Harbor and 810-MW Lower Granite, all in Washington, as well as 338-MW Round Butte and 1,780-MW The Dalles in Oregon. Thompson Metal Fab has 374,000 square feet of indoor fabrication space, including its coatings department.

Underwater Engineering Services Inc.

Underwater Engineering Services offers diving services for marine construction, nuclear and commercial diving applications. The company provides major structure rehabilitation of hydroelectric facility discharge outfalls, intake structures, storage tanks and more. Project owners the company has worked with include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Florida Power and Light.

Voith Hydro Inc.

Voith Hydro manufactures hydro turbine equipment, with 12,000 units commissioned. Recent contract awards in the U.S. include rehabilitation of a turbine-generator unit at 185.3-MW Fort Peck in Montana and provision of generators and turbines for 55-MW Red Rock in Iowa. In addition, Peak Hydro Services is now part of Voith Hydro Services, as a result of a merger between Voith Hydro’s After Market Division and Peak Hydro Services. Peak Hydro provides weld repair, field machining and site maintenance.

For more information on HydroVision International 2013 or to register now, visit www.hydroevent.com.

Elizabeth Ingram is senior editor of Hydro Review and conference committee chair for HydroVision International.