Sandy Hook Hydro Generating Electricity For The Power Grid 

By Andrew Gorosko

 Having received certification from the Connecticut Light & Power Company (CL&P), a compact hydroelectric plant inside Rocky Glen Mill at 75 Glen Road in Sandy Hook is once again running and feeding the electricity that it generates into the electric power distribution grid that serves the region.

Rick Fattibene, a Brookfielder who grew up in Newtown, is operating the hydroelectric plant under the name Sandy Hook Hydro, LLC.

CL&P certified the hydroelectric plant’s operation on April 21, confirming that the facility produces electricity that meets the public utility’s specifications, and thus can be fed into the power grid serving the region, Mr Fattibene said. The hydroelectric plant’s efficient generator can produce 110 kilowatts, providing the power required by 70 single-family houses.

If operational problems occur, the hydroelectric plant automatically disconnects itself from the power grid to ensure that it does not create a grid failure, he said.

Mr Fattibene, an engineer by training, worked for the hydroelectric plant’s certification for the past two years. He said he had not realized that gaining certification to produce electricity for sale to CL&P would be so lengthy a process.

Rocky Glen Mill, which formerly was known as Fabric Fire Hose Company, has a long history of water-powered industry. The red-brick structure is now used as an office building.

In 1850, a water wheel was operated at the plant to provide rotational power for the New York Belt & Packing Company for its manufacturing processes, Mr Fattibene said.

The power of moving water diverted from the Pootatuck River was first used to generate electricity at the mill starting in 1929, he added. The hydroelectric plant has been used for that purpose intermittently since then.

A dam on the river just upstream of Rocky Glen Mill creates a pond, whose water is diverted into a canal that leads to a five-foot-diameter penstock. Water flowing through the penstock rotates turbine blades, which then spin a shaft leading to the generator, creating electric power.

The water is then discharged within a tall masonry structure, through which it flows before reentering the Pootatuck River. The building formerly housed a 50-foot-diameter wooden water wheel.  

Mr Fattibene explained that when he was a college student in the late 1980s, he developed an interest in hydroelectric power production.

Although the means by which moving water is converted into electrical power is relatively simple, producing hydroelectric power for commercial use requires many regulatory approvals, he said.

Environmental regulations require that at least 12 cubic feet of water per second (cfs) be allowed to flow over the dam  while electricity is being generated, Mr Fattibene said.

Thus, as currently configured, during some low water periods, Sandy Hook Hydro is not able to generate power. Mr Fattibene plans to install some new lower-powered generating equipment to address that problem.

The profitability of the hydroelectric enterprise depends upon how much rain falls. The more it rains, the more profitable the enterprise becomes. The hydroelectric plant only creates “run of river” power, or power produced by the instantaneous flow of the river. 

Besides the direct sale of generated electricity to CL&P Mr Fattibene will do some trading in “renewable energy credits” as a way to produce income, he said. Hydroelectric power is clean power, which lends itself to such energy-credit trading, he said.

At some point in the future, Sandy Hook Hydro may supply the electric power needs of Rocky Glen Mill, he said.