First fire of gas turbine in Oklahoma combined cycle

A milestone along the Grand River Dam Authority’s path to construct a highly-efficient combined cycle gas generation plant was achieved on Tuesday at the Grand River Energy Center, east of Chouteau.

GRDA successfully completed the “first fire” of the natural gas combustion turbine which spins at the heart of Unit 3 of the 495 MW facility. That first fire is one of the important steps in the commissioning process for the new unit, which is expected to begin operations in early summer.

The gas turbine is a M501J constructed in Savannah, Georgia, and is the first of its kind to be deployed in the Western Hemisphere. It will be fueled by Oklahoma natural gas.

GRDA broke ground on the Unit 3 project in January 2015. Since that time, hundreds of contractors have been on-site to help GRDA construct its first new generation plant since the coal-fired units (located at the same site as the combined cycle plant) were completed in the early 1980s.

According to a 2015 study by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, GRDA’s construction of Unit 3 has helped the GRDA pump about $1 billion into Oklahoma’s economy during the first two years of construction.

Headquartered in Vinita, Oklahoma, GRDA is a state-owned electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes.