Hydro Power

A diagram of the Dunn & McCarthy site. Water flows from right to left, into the intake structure, through the penstock, to the turbine/generator and out the draft tube.

Hydropower uses the kinetic energy of the flowing water to do work.  Early mills and factories directly used the kinetic energy to run their machines. Hydroelectric power is the conversion of the energy in the water flow to electricity by turning a turbine and a generator. The City of Auburn currently has two hydroelectric power producing facilities and four potential power producing facilities. The two hydroelectric power producing facilities are the Mill Street Dam Hydropower Plant and the North Division Street Hydropower Plant. The four potential power producing facilities are The Dunn & McCarthy Site, Aurelius Avenue Site, the State Dam and Canoga Street Site.

Mill Street Dam

The Mill Street Dam Hydropower Station (MSDH) is a run-of-the-river operation which means it operates only when flows in the Owasco River exceed 450 cubic feet per second (CFS) as measured at a United States Geological Survey (USGS) Station located downstream from the Mill Street Dam near a city-owned structure called Combined Sewer Overflow Treatment Facility 29A. The flows in the Owasco River generally exceed 450 CFS approximately 180 days per calendar year. Seasonally, these times generally occur during the early Spring (March - May) to accommodate snowmelt and runoff within the watershed, and late Fall (October - December) when the Owasco Lake is drawn down to provide storage capacity for the Spring meltdown and precipitation events.

General Information

Equipment

• Generator: Potencia Industrial Synchronous Custom Built
• Turbine: Kaplan Vertical, Open Flume, Direct Drive

North Street Hydropower Plant

11 years after the Mill Street Dam began operating a second hydroelectric facility was constructed and opened. In December 1992, the City completed the North Division Street Hydro Electric Plant at North Division Street. This facility produces approximately $ 140,000 in gross income per year.

General Information

Equipment

Combination Generator & Turbine Unit: Flygt Hydropower Model E-7650

Note: This is the largest submersible turbine unit in service in the United States.