Repairs on Bayonne’s wind turbine further delayed, city’s MUA says

Credit: By Jonathan Lin | The Jersey Journal | December 09, 2015 | www.nj.com ~~

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BAYONNE – Repairs on the wind turbine used to power the city’s Oak Street and Fifth Street pumping stations have been further delayed, according to the Bayonne Municipal Utilities Authority.

MUA Executive Director Tim Boyle said the part needed to repair the turbine failed a quality assurance check early last month before it could be delivered to the city, and that it’s not known when the city will get another part.

“It’s more than a little bit frustrating,” Boyle said, adding that it’s a good thing that the part was determined to be bad sooner rather than later.

The 260-foot wind turbine, located off East Fifth Street, was originally scheduled to be repaired in November. Repairs were pushed back to late December after the part needed to fix the turbine was on back order, and have now been delayed again.

The turbine went into operation in June 2012, with city officials touting energy savings of up to $300,000 a year. But it stopped working in June.

Every month that the turbine goes unrepaired costs the city roughly $25,000 in energy savings, Boyle has said. Assuming the turbine is fixed by the end of January, the money lost in energy savings would total about $175,000.

The part needed to repair the turbine – which is estimated to take one to four days to install upon arrival – will cost $298,000, down from the original repair cost estimate of $350,000, Boyle has said.

SUEZ, formerly United Water, monitors and maintains the windmill under a 40-year deal with the BMUA.

Boyle previously said MUA workers detected vibrations coming from the turbine in June and the manufacturer shut off the generator remotely and then sent a representative to inspect it.

Boyle has said he was told these types of generators are supposed to last 20 years. The city got three years out of its generator.

For the past two years, the turbine has produced about 3.3 gigawatt hours of electricity per year, enough to power 600 single-family homes for a year.

Source: By Jonathan Lin | The Jersey Journal | December 09, 2015 | www.nj.com

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