The Schoellkopf Power Station collapsed into the Niagara gorge in 1956. Its replacement is now 65 years old, and the New York Power Authority is spending $1.1 billion to keep it running.
Next Generation Niagara is the largest single investment NYPA has ever made. The program launched in 2019 to life-extend the 2,600 MW Niagara Power Project, the biggest source of clean electricity in New York State. In February 2026 the Authority returned the first of 13 generating units to service, mechanically overhauled and digitally upgraded. One unit alone carries a city the size of Rochester.
Project Scope
Four workstreams run in parallel. Penstock inspections cover the 485-foot, 26-foot-diameter conduits feeding the units from the forebay. The 630-ton gantry crane is being replaced with a 680-ton machine, now being assembled on site, and it is the enabling asset for the whole program: nothing gets disassembled without it. Control systems are being digitized, with the control room, the switchyard and two units already converted. Each unit then gets an end-of-life mechanical overhaul covering wicket gates and operating mechanisms, head cover, turbine and generator shafts, guide bearings, relays and switchgear.
In April 2026 ANDRITZ won the contract for five replacement generator stators, each more than 10 metres across. They cannot be shipped assembled, so they are being manufactured on site. A separate 15-year, $18 million ANDRITZ contract covers turbine shaft design, manufacture and delivery.
Why It Matters
Hydropower assets built in the postwar boom are all arriving at the same place at roughly the same time. Niagara was built by 11,700 workers who moved 12 million cubic yards of excavation, and it produced first power in 1961. The powerhouse is 1,840 feet long, 580 feet wide and 384 feet high.
Refurbishing a structure that size without taking the plant offline is a sequencing exercise before it is a construction one. NYPA is working 13 units one at a time while the rest keep generating, and the program runs to the end of the decade.
Project Team & Details
| Owner / Client | New York Power Authority (NYPA) |
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| Major Subcontractors | ANDRITZ Hydro (Generator Stators)
ANDRITZ (Turbine Shafts) |
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| Status | Under Construction |
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| Delivery Method | Design-Bid-Build |
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| Funding Source | Public (State) |
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