Han-Tek Builds Transfer Car for Power Plant

Victor, N.Y.-based Han-Tek Inc. has been awarded a contract by the New York Power Authority (NYPA), to design and build a new transfer car for the Lewiston Pump-Generating Plant (LPGP), the auxiliary facility at NYPA’s Niagara Power Project in Lewiston, N.Y.

Under the terms of the bid contract, Han-Tek will supply a transfer car to handle the demands and weight of the Power Authority’s upgrade at LPGP of five generator step-up transformers from 150-ton capacity units to those of 200-ton capacity. This is part of a planned Life Extension and Modernization Program that NYPA will be undertaking at the facility to ensure its optimum performance.

The transfer car, which will be moving on rails, will enable the lift and traverse of the step-up transformers at LPGP in all four cardinal directions. Han-Tek is handling the mechanical design and build of the transfer car, which is being engineered completely at its headquarters. The transfer car will feature electrical controls—a combination of variable frequency drives and contactors—as well as main-panel controls. The equipment installation by the company will be completed in April 2011.

LPGP operates during periods of peak power demand in supplementing the electricity output of the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant, the Niagara project’s main generating facility.

Located within five miles of Niagara Falls, the Power Authority’s Niagara project produces clean, carbon-free hydroelectricity by harnessing water from the Niagara River to power the generating units at the Moses and LPGP plants. The project is a mainstay for economic development in Western New York, with tens of thousands of jobs directly linked to low-cost power allocations.