Voith Hydro announced that is has received a contract for the Red Rock Hydroelectric Project on the Des Moines River near Pella, Iowa, to provide turbines and generators. To be completed in 2016, the Red Rock Dam power plant will produce 36MW of power with the capacity during peak seasons to generate as much as 55MW.
A joint venture of The Western Minnesota Municipal Power Agency and Missouri River Energy Services, the project will provide clean and efficient hydroelectric power to upper Midwest customers. Construction will begin next year and the project is expected to be completed and operational in 2016. The project will be dispatchable generation, with the electricity being turned on or by by operators in order to meet electrical demand. Analysis anticipates that the project will provide economic benefits of almost US250miilion four counties in Iowa during the construction period. The project is expected to create 448 direct and indirect jobs, with 732 jobs at the height of construction in 2014.
For a contract worth almost US50million, Voith Hydro’s York, PA facility will be supplying two vertical Kaplan type turbines with generators and automation systems. A join-action agency made up of MRES members in Minnesota, WMMPA has provided financing for all of the major generating and transmission facilities with which MRES serves its 61 member municipal electrical systems in Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota.