Los Alamos utility reports curtailed hydropower output as dam repairs and drought constrain operations

Don Wickers, the county’s hydro plant supervisor, told the Board of Public Utilities on Aug. 6 that drought and federal dam repair plans are the primary near‑term constraints on Los Alamos’s two hydroelectric plants. "We are a run of the river, both facilities," Wickers said, describing Abiquiu’s three Francis units (combined about 17 megawatts) and El Vado’s single Kaplan unit (near 9 megawatts).

Wickers said Abiquiu and El Vado operate under memoranda with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation and are FERC‑regulated facilities. He said Abiquiu produced roughly 18,035 megawatt‑hours through June of the fiscal year while El Vado generated about 1,400 MWh, and that operations have been sharply reduced because federal releases and snowpack‑driven runoff are well below historical averages.

The presentation emphasized two immediate technical concerns. First, Wickers reported "we are having a problem" at El Vado: a leaking turbine seal that staff are "working with the manufacturer to try to get that situation remedied." Second, Abiquiu Unit 1 has long‑standing cracking in Francis turbine blades; prior repairs were performed but staff said the cracks are not propagating and "the unit's not gonna come apart." Staff listed ongoing capital projects — SCADA upgrades, new transformers, air compressors and an insurance‑required firewall upgrade — and said a draft‑tube replacement at Unit 3 is planned.

On the El Vado dam repair timeline, Wickers said the Army Corps halted a prior contractor’s remediation and is "going back to the drawing board" with options such as shotcrete or grout curtains to stop seepage. He described a USACE reassessment period of roughly 3–6 years to design a fix, followed by an expected multi‑year drawdown and repair phase; staff characterized that sequence as causing "limited production for 3 years" during active repair and drawdown periods rather than a permanent loss of generation.

Wickers and staff tied production shortfalls to regional hydrology: NOAA data show Southwestern snowpack and snow‑water equivalent tracking far below long‑term averages, and the Army Corps has lately been releasing as little as 60 CFS with intermittent pulses rather than the 1,200 CFS that supported fuller generation in normal years. "Water's a big — it's missing right now," Wickers said.

Board members questioned operational and financial tradeoffs, including whether to mothball equipment or run minimal maintenance during low‑water years; staff said they are beginning an analysis of mothballing costs and operational minimums but had no timeline for that study. Staff also described efforts to reclaim SCADA control — previously handed off to LANL — by installing fiber and a dedicated SCADA system with cellular backup so staff can monitor plants directly.

The board did not take formal action on hydro capital items at the meeting. Wickers estimated preliminary USACE‑related repairs at El Vado at roughly $2,000,000 as a guesstimate but said the scope remains on hold pending federal design decisions. The board thanked staff for the update and moved on to the next agenda item.