Now that two 90-ton transformers were delivered on a barge via the Cumberland River this week, the Barkley Powerplant will be transforming its switchyard.
Nashville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman, Lee Roberts says the special payload that arrived Wednesday at the Barkley Powerplant in Kuttawa had a long journey from a factory in Poland, where they were manufactured by EthosEnergy. He says the transformers were shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to Galveston, Texas, and then moved up the Inland Waterway System to a boat ramp below Barkley Dam for offloading.
According to Roberts, EthosEnergy out of Houston moved the 382,000-pound transformers from the boat ramp to the switchyard. He says A. West Enterprises out of Albany, Georgia will install and test the first transformer on its containment pad over the next month. Once the first transformer goes online, Roberts indicates the Corps of Engineers will remove the second of two General Electric transformers that have been in service since 1971. He adds the installation of the second transformer will be after the second containment pad is constructed. The new transformers will reportedly provide increased power ratings and include safety and environmental benefits.
Chris Stoltz, project manager with Nashville District, says the project for the new transformers cost about $2.5 million and is related to another contract that has been awarded to modernize equipment and rehabilitate four hydropower units over the next seven years.
Stoltz says the new transformers will be able to handle the greater capacity of the turbine-generator units when the rehabilitated units eventually come online.
Roberts says the Nashville District has 35 large transformers at its nine powerplants in the Cumberland River Basin that are all original equipment from when the plants were constructed. He notes the transformers at Barkley Dam are the first to be replaced in the fleet. He says the district has contracted for two more for Old Hickory Dam in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and is in the planning stage to replace the transformers at Wolf Creek Dam in Jamestown, Kentucky.
