High waters along the Mississippi River delayed its start for a short time, and then choppy waters, fog and wind made the trip interesting but on Monday, January 25, a barge carrying an important load for the Grand River Dam Authority finally arrived at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa.
That load included two generators bound for GRDA’s new Unit 3 combined cycle gas plant, currently under construction at the Grand River Energy Center (GREC), just east of Chouteau, Oklahoma. Those generators – one to be attached to the steam turbine and the other to the gas turbine – will work together to complete the combined cycle generation process when Unit 3 goes online.
Not only does this latest shipment move the Unit 3 construction project one step closer to completion but it also highlights other valuable Oklahoma assets, like the McClellan–Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS) and the Port of Catoosa.
“It’s easy to see just how beneficial all these assets are to the state,” said GRDA Corporate Communications Director Justin Alberty. “While GRDA has been putting the waters of the Grand River to work since 1940, the waters of the MKARNS are certainly a great benefit to the Unit 3 construction.”
Another GRDA shipment – the gas turbine manufactured by MHPS in Savannah, Georgia – was expected to begin its journey across the nation’s waterways to the Tulsa Port of Catoosa in late January. This turbine is MHPS’s M501 J model and will be the first of its kind installed in the western hemisphere when it arrives in late February.
Headquartered in Vinita, GRDA is Oklahoma’s state-owned electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes. Each day, GRDA strives to be an “Oklahoma agency of excellence” by focusing on the 5 E’s: electricity, economic development, environmental stewardship, employees and efficiency.
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