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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