Imperial Irrigation District approves re-powering project budget

IMPERIAL COUNTY, Calif. (KYMA) - The Imperial Irrigation District (IID) Board of Directors approved a budget amendment for their re-powering project.

During the regular meeting, the IID approved more than $2 million to upgrade their re-powering project which will replace the unit four boiler and steam turbine.

IID says the unit four boiler and steam turbine has been operating since 1968 at the El Centro generating station.

"What it helps us do is it adds more energy to our portfolio, so what we see behind us here, in unit four, is a generator that produce a 74 MW. When this project is done will increase it to 113 alone, so that's a big step...That's 39 MW and just to put that in perspective 1 MW serves about 1000 customers 1,000 homes," said Robert Schettler with IID.

IID says although it is a large cost the focus is investing in the valley and not buying power on the market.

The project is expected to be finished in three years.