The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON-PacifiCorp is investing $3.5 billion to build four new wind projects and upgrade its Wyoming, Oregon, and Washington wind fleet. The upgrade includes "repowering" the 78 wind turbines at Marengo I, and the 39 wind turbines at Marengo II, east of Dayton.

"Local communities may notice an increase in heavy equipment and vehicle traffic as early as May as work begins to widen leased access roads to allow for sufficient access to the sites," said Tom Gauntt, Media Spokesman for Pacific Power.

Gauntt said the 1.8 MW wind turbines at the Marengo sites will be retrofitted with 2.0 MW units beginning in June.

"The last decade has seen tremendous improvement in the wind business," he said. "The new wind turbines have many proprietary mechanical and control updates that improve efficiency and reduce maintenance costs."

The turbine blades, which are manufactured in Brighton, Colo., are 20 meters larger in diameter than their predecessors, and about twenty percent more power will be produced using the same tower, Gauntt said.

He said the entire project is expected to last seven months, with new equipment arriving on site and existing equipment being transported away, between the months of June and October.

Approximately sixty full-time construction jobs will be created by the repowering project, Gauntt said. Applications for employment will be accepted when the construction team moves onsite in May.

The repowering project will help to continue providing affordable, reliable, renewable energy to Pacific Power customers, Gauntt said.

According to the PacifiCorp website, a new high-voltage transmission line in Wyoming will connect the new wind energy from PacifiCorp's various wind projects, to the PacifiCorp grid, adding 1,150 MW of new wind resources.