Water & Dams
Jacobs Tapped for Grand Coulee Dam Modernization Program
Last year, the US Bureau of Reclamation turned operations of Grand Coulee's 115-kV, 230-kV and 500-kV switchyards over to the Bonneville Power Administration.
Photo courtesy the US Bureau of Reclamation
The Grand Coulee Modernization Program in central Washington can move forward with the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) selecting Jacobs to provide engineering and advisory services at the country’s largest hydropower facility.
In October, the Bureau of Reclamation transferred Grand Coulee’s 115-kV, 230-kV and 500-kV switchyards to the power agency in the largest asset transfer in BPA’s history. The changeover of the transmission assets, which is scheduled to take five years, opened the door for BPA to start a modernization project.
Jacobs is now the owner’s consultant on that project, providing project management, scoping, engineering and strategic advisory services to modernize substation infrastructure, optimize transmission pathways, enhance operational efficiency and ensure the continued delivery of power to BPA’s customers.
“Through this new agreement, Jacobs will apply its experience in energy and infrastructure to support BPA in delivering resilient, secure and cost-effective power solutions to communities across the Pacific Northwest,” Fiachra Ó Cléirigh, Jacobs executive vice president, said in a statement. “This collaboration reinforces Jacobs’ dedication to advancing critical capital projects, modernizing utility infrastructure and strategically positioning BPA to meet future load demand with efficiency and reliability.”
According to officials with Jacobs, the anticipated timeline for completion is approximately 2040 and the estimated maximum program value is $1 Billion.
Grand Coulee currently has a capacity of more than 7,000 MW, according to Kevin Wingert, BPA spokesperson. “Modernizing and making the current switchyards more reliable for the future will preserve current utility infrastructure and allow Grand Coulee to quickly and safely ramp up and down generation depending on grid demand,” he said, “critical as AI data centers and other power-dense applications come online.”
The transfer from the Bureau of Reclamation to BPA is a five-year process that is designed to ensure reliability and safety in switchyard operations. Once complete, BPA expects to see overall cost savings in annual operations and maintenance expenses, along with significant reduction in overhead costs on capital modernization projects.
“Transferring these valuable assets allow our agencies to continue to flourish and do what we do best,” Jennifer Carrington, the Columbia-Pacific Northwest regional director for the Bureau of Reclamation, said in a statement during the beginning of the transfer in October 2024. “Reclamation’s commitment to manage, develop and protect water and related resources in the West and BPA’s role in providing reliable and affordable power.”
The Bureau of Reclamation has faced several staffing cuts in recent months, including to staff that operates and oversees the Grand Coulee Dam back in March, according to the Associated Press.
Construction of the Grand Coulee Dam broke ground in 1933 and was completed in 1942. Located west of Spokane, Wash., on the Columbia River is the largest concrete structure in the country. It’s 550 ft high and just shy of a mile long at 5,223 ft. The reservoir created by the dam, Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake, stretches over 150 miles north, almost to the Canadian border.
Today the Grand Coulee complex provides 35% of the entire power supply of the Pacific Northwest, playing a key role in transmitting more than 21 billion kWh of electricity annually to customers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, western Montana and parts of California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Canada.
