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n early 2006, it became apparent that the attempt to
extend the life of the 1,500 MW coal fired Mohave
Generating Station (MGS) would not be successful
(SRP's20"/" porrion of MGS equaled 300MW's)' SRP
then had to scrambleto add new coal fired power generatlon
to replacethat lost by Mohave's closing.The option selected
was to construct Unit 4 at the Tucson Electric Power (TEP)
plant site outside Springerville,Arizona. Unit 4 had received
all the necessarypermits when both Units 3 and 4 were
permitted. Tri-State'sUnit 3 was nearing completion.
SRP's Board approved moving forward with the
Sprir-rgerville4 project on May L, 2006. The 400MW
subcriticalplant would beessentiallyidenticalto Unit 3, with
the addition of various modifications intended to improve
plant operability and reduce maintenance costs. Unit 4
wor-rldalso have the benefit of "lessons learned" from the
constructionand initial operationof Unit 3. Unit 4 would be
owned by SRPand operated by TEP.
Detail Engineering commenced immediately as studies
and preliminary engineeringwere unnecessarydue to the
replication of Unit 3. The boiler, steam turbine, generator
and air quality control system were awarded to the same
suppliers who had provided the Unit 3 equipment. The
project schedule was 44 months from start to commercial
operation. (A typical coal plant scheduleis 60 months or
more.) The prolect had to be completed and placed into
commercial operation by the end of 2009. This was dictated
by the expiration of the Air Permiton December3L, 2009.
Fortunateln SRP had an in-houseteam of experienced
project management professionals who had recently
constructed 1,L00 MW's of gas fired, combined cycle
power generation. Little did they know that Springerville4
was headed into the "perfect storm" in terms of material,
equipment and construction labor cost escalationcoupled
with a scarcity of qualified suppliers and contractors. The
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projectwould ultimatelycost one billion dollars.
Becauseof the short schedule,it was determinedthat the
substructures(concreteand underground)work would need
to be awardedon unit pricesbasedon preliminaryquantities.
The award was made at approximately 507" completion of
the substructuresengineering.This, in turn, led to extensive
revisionsin constnction drawings.Drawing revisionsof 15 to
20 becamecommonplace.In fact,therewere instanceswhere
concretepours were actually halted due to the last minute
receiptof a reviseddrawing. This was further exacerbatedby
the very late receipt of vendor drawings. The vendors were
overloadedand had no ability to staff-up with experienced
people to handle their 2006 -2007 workloads' Along with
other new power plants, SRP would also be competing for
resourceswith many "back-end" emissionscontrolsproiects
mandated by the EPA.
Structural steel erection needed to commence within
a yearof the project'snotice to proceed.This was another
challengeasChinawaslockingup worldwide steelproduction.
SRP immediately went to a trusted steel supplier they had
usedon previousproiects.They told the steelsupplierto get
started and the paperwork would follow. The steelsupplier
turned down much larger proiects just two weeks after SRP
contractedwith them becausethey had reachedtheir capacity
limit. In fact, they had to use their alliance agreementswith
other steelsuppliers to ensuretimely delivery of SRP'ssteel.
The steel was fast-tracked through mill rr-rns,fabrication
drawings, shop fabrication and jobsite delivery. However,
it still became necessaryto issuea cost-plus contract to an
industry renowned steel erector who did exceptionally well
under very difficult circumstances;performing any necessary
modifications to the steel in the field as drawing revisions
continuedup to the last minute.
Next, a boiler erectorneededto beselected.Unfortunatel5
there were no takers. Everyone was busy on other projects.

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Contact:ChrisBiondolilo,PE- ProjectManager
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Aurora,C080014-5475
303-353-3876
DlstribuledGeneration
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MERRICK"
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Employee0wned
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www.towill.com