MARSHALL – This week, the Marshall Municipal Utilities Commission got a look at plans for a new electric generator plant in the city. The facility would house a total of four 3-megawatt generators that would replace MMU’s existing turbine, which dates back to 1968.

Engineer Travis Zipf of DGR Engineering said the goal was to go out for bids on the project in January.

During a presentation to the MMU Commission on Wednesday, Zipf estimated the total cost of the project in the range of about $16.7 million to $17 million. However, MMU General Manager Dave Schelkoph said the project would not mean additional costs for customers. The utility is getting help from an incentive program offered by Missouri River Energy Services (MRES). MRES started the incentive program to encourage member utilities to build up more reserve energy capacity, Schelkoph said.

“MMU saw an avenue to replace our 55-year-old turbine,” he said.

The utility will go out for bonding to pay for some of the cost of the generator plant project, Schelkoph said. The bonds will be paid through the revenue that MMU receives for making the new generators available to MRES. The new generators are expected to bring in about $60,000 to $70,000 a month in revenue, he said.

Planning for the generator plant project has been in the works for over a year.

“One of the things we’re finding is we’re running into huge lead times,” for some parts of the project, Schelkoph said.

“It was probably about a year ago I stood here and presented the bid on generating equipment for this gen station, and at that time the decision was made to award four Caterpillar generating units, each about 3 megawatts in size,” Zipf told MMU commissioners. Some grading work for the project was done this fall, at a site near MMU’s southwest substation and water treatment plant.

Zipf and architect David Brockshus of CMBA Architects went over the preliminary plans for the generator plant. In addition to the four generators, the plant would include switchgear, fuel tanks, and workstations for plant operators. Brockshus said the exterior of the plant was designed to look similar to the nearby MMU water plant.

“Providing the plan meets expectations and an award is made, we would proceed with side work and soil correction probably during the first half of 2025,” Zipf said. Building construction would start later in 2025 or early 2026, with the ability to receive the generators as early as the first or second quarter of 2026, he said.