Dave Campbell
Grant County PUD

Nicolas Dehlinger
GE Renewable Energy

David Elwood
GE Renewable Energy

Don Jarrett
City of Petersburg

DESCRIPTION

Powerhouse components such as turbine, generators, and balance of plant equipment can be repaired extending their original life expectation or they can be replaced with new equipment. These capital investments include complex decision-making processes and criteria often including business cases, risk determinations, and economic evaluations.  This session will focus on how owners and OEMs approach repair or replace recommendations.  

This Panel is within the Technical, Dam Safety, and Engineering Track at the conference. 
 
This session is a 201-level discussion for those looking to take a deeper dive into this subject matter. 

Moderator

Dale Campbell, Senior Manager of Power Production Engineering, Grant County PUD

Panelists:

• Sean Flak, Project Manager, Portland General Electric
• Nicolas Delinger, Hydro Services Manager and David Elwood- Senior Turbine/Generator Engineer, GE Renewable Energy
• Donald Jarrett, Owner, Jarrett PLLC, City of Petersburg

Speaker Bios:

• Dale Campbell- I grew up at Grant County PUD by learning about engineering design, and maintenance and operation of hydroelectric components. I have spent my career supporting the production of power at hydroelectric facilities for 20 years at Grant County PUD. With a Mechanical Engineering degree from Washington State University (Go Cougs!), I have been a plant engineer, project engineer, project manager, operations supervisor, maintenance supervisor, and currently I am the senior manager of hydro engineering. My drive is to serve the Northwest electric customers by promoting affordable, reliable, and carbon free hydropower. I am currently a Washington Board of Director for NWHA.
• Don Jarrett started his career in 1974 folllowing graduation with a BSME from UC Berkeley. He worked in manufacturing in Portland Oregon, and in the nuclear field in Richland Washington before moving to Bellevue Washington 1983 to begin his career in hydroelectric projects. Don worked as a consultant until 1989 when he went to work as a regional manager for an independent power producer and was involved in 90 hydroelectric projects manangement, planning and acquisitions. In 2010 he returned to consulting in the hydroelectric business until he retired in 2024. Don has worked on dozens of projects in permitting, licensing, design, procurement, construction and operations. Don continues to provide consulting services to selected clients.
• Sean Flak began his career at Murray, Smith & Associates in Portland, Oregon as a utilities engineer, working on public water distribution and storage systems. He then spent two years in PacifiCorp’s hydropower engineering group before joining Portland General Electric in 2007. At PGE, Sean focused on upgrades supporting the company’s new hydro license for the Clackamas River Project. For the past six years, he has been part of PGE’s Project Management Organization, where he has led efforts to modernize and improve PGE’s generation and transmission assets, including leading the Faraday Repower Project.
• David Elwood- With over 15 years of experience in the hydroelectric industry, David Elwood has worked on the development, refurbishment, and maintenance of small and large hydroelectric projects across North America. Since 2014 he has spent most of his time in the field supporting the refurbishment and repair of large hydroelectric turbines and generators.
• Nicolas Dehlinger started their career in Hydro 15 years ago as a generator design with Alstom. He has since then worked for various equipment manufacturers and Hydro service providers in the industry before re-joining GE in 2022. His expertise is in generator repair, refurbishment, inspection and testing. He has been involved on hydro projects all across the US and Canada, and worldwide.