BWL names Christman
Co. as
Construction Manager of Reo Town facility
The Lansing Board of Water & Light today
chose the Christman Company of Lansing to be the
Construction Manager of the BWL’s Reo Town cogeneration
facility.
“Christman is a highly respected company
nationally, with a vast award-winning resume in
construction,” said BWL General Manager J. Peter Lark.
Lark noted that the Christman Co. has
already won national acclaim for its work in the
redevelopment of the Ottawa Power Station, which
recently reopened in downtown Lansing as the
headquarters of the Accident Fund Co.
Christman also designed the BWL’s
Chilled Water Plant, which opened in 2009.
With the naming of Christman as the
project’s Construction Manager, Lark said the BWL has
now assembled most of the key partners involved in
the design and construction of the facility.
The engineering firm of Burns and Roe
was recently selected to design the cogeneration
facility. Burns and Roe also designed the BWL’s Ottawa
Power Station in 1937. That building, in downtown
Lansing, was recently redeveloped as the national
headquarters of the Accident Fund.
Two other local firms have joined the
project. Kramer Management Group, Inc. was recently
named the project’s Owner’s Representative. Clark
Construction Co. began work this week at the Reo Town
site – building a new steam vault that will access steam
lines serving BWL’s steam customers in downtown Lansing.
The $182 million cogeneration facility
in Lansing’s historic Reo Town neighborhood will use
natural gas to generate both electricity and steam.
The cogeneration facility will replace
the Moores Park Steam Plant, which uses coal to produce
steam. Combined-cycle, cogeneration uses the same fuel
to generate two different products – electricity and
steam. It begins with natural gas fueling a gas turbine
to produce electricity. The hot exhaust created by
burning natural gas is then sent to a steam boiler that
can be used to generate electricity or steam.
By switching to natural gas at the new
facility, the BWL will avoid burning 139,000 tons of
coal each year. Greenhouse gas emissions will be
dramatically reduced – 50 percent less than Moores Park.
The cogeneration facility will produce
100 megawatts of electricity, and sufficient steam to
serve its existing customers, with the potential to
serve future steam customers.
The facility is expected to become fully
operational in early to mid-2013.
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