Biglow Canyon Wind Farm Sherman County

  By: Gary Hackett, Plant Manager 
Phase One   - 76 Vestas V-82 Turbines , Operating Since December, 2007  You may have noticed that a few of our turbines have not been operating lately. In an effort to increase unit availability, our equipment vendor has added extra staff and resources  to return all units to full service ASAP.      Phase Two Construction Underway PGE has selected the Balance of Plant Contractor for Biglow Canyon Phase 2 and 3 and it is D. H. Blattner and Sons, who also performed our Phase 1 work.  They will be using Rosinden as the primary electrical contractor for installation of the underground collection system.   Road construction will start on Monday, July 28th with a D-9 and D-8 coming in to start cutting roads through fallow land south of Emigrant Springs Land, adjacent to North Klondike Road (turbines 127-133). It is our plan to install roads, foundations, the collection system, and an addition to the existing substation this year to be ready for the first 65 Siemens 2.3 MW units that will start arriving in April 2009.   Blattner has moved in a couple trailers next to the PGE construction office site on Emigrant Springs at North Klondike Rd. This is the same construction area that was used for Phase One. They are working directly with landowners to establish a construction water supply and also a rock source for road construction and concrete. The Geotechnical drilling at the proposed sites was completed in early July.  Field soil testing for thermal properties has also been competed. The first dynamic compaction machines (thumpers) should arrive and start work in early August.   PGE is serious about wind turbine ownership as we are spending close to $1 Billion to build all three phases of the Biglow project. As our entire 450 MW project is located within Sherman County that translates into more new family wage jobs and tax revenue dollars. When all three phases are completed in 2010 we will provide enough clean and renewable energy to supply the total needs for 115,000 households.