The Grand River Dam Authority in Oklahoma has launched design, procurement and construction activities for a new advanced class natural gas-fired project co-led by the GRDA and Black & Veatch.
The Grand River Energy Center Unit 4 is a new fast-start, 426-megawatt advanced J-class Mitsubishi Power 1x0 combustion turbine simple-cycle project near Chouteau in northeast Oklahoma.
It will replace the energy center’s Unit 2, a 492-megawatt coal-fired generator dating to the mid-1980s.
Intended to deliver operational flexibility and fast start-up times to meet the needs of the GRDA’s evolving grid and its customers, the new unit will be installed at the GRDA’s existing GREC power plant site and connect to an existing 345-kilovolt switchyard that Black & Veatch also supported early on.
GREC Unit 4, which will provide peaking power in a wind-dominated Southwest Power Pool region when completed in 2026, will be executed by Black & Veatch under a shared-risk engineering, procurement support and construction management contract, Black and Veatch said on May 21.
Black & Veatch also is providing minor air permitting support and has prepared a cost estimate for the GRDA’s new 345-kV transmission line with related structures.
“GRDA’s goal is to continue to deliver reliable, efficient electricity to our customers in the decades to come, and Unit 4 will be a tremendous asset that will allow us to do that,” said Dan Sullivan, GRDA’s President and CEO, in a statement. “Our partnership with Black & Veatch has helped us reshape our generation portfolio by adding new advanced class natural gas generation units. We look forward to continuing that partnership with Unit 4.”
GRDA and Black & Veatch have a history of collaborative, successful infrastructure projects, Black & Veatch said.
Black & Veatch served as owner’s engineer for GREC Unit 3 a combined-cycle GRDA power generator completed in 2017 and billed as the first unit of its kind to be deployed in the Western Hemisphere.
