GB Energy Park LLC and Alstom announced an agreement for equipment supply for the 400-MW Gordon Butte Pumped Storage hydro project.
Gordon Butte will be a utility scale closed-loop pumped storage facility in south central Montana. It will consist of upper and lower closed-loop reservoirs connected by an underground concrete and steel-lined hydraulic shaft. Each reservoir will be about 4,000 feet long and 1,000 feet wide (4,000 acre-feet) with depths of 50 to 75 feet, and the head between the two reservoirs if 1,025 feet. The powerhouse will contain four pump-turbine units with total installed capacity of 400 MW and expected annual energy generation of 1,300 GWh.
The facility is intended to provide transmission regulation services, energy storage and grid support to the Northern Great Plains and Pacific Northwest, GB Energy Park says.
Gordon Butte will be one of the first pumped-storage facilities built in the U.S. to use the newest generation of fast-acting pump-turbine technology, GB Energy Park says. GB Energy Park is a subsidiary of Absaroka Energy LLC.
“We’re excited to welcome Alstom to be the equipment supplier for the facility. Absaroka Energy is committed to continuing Montana’s leadership of integrating renewable energy resources and providing reliable energy to the region,” says Carl Borgquist, president of Absaroka Energy.
A Federal Energy Regulatory Commission preliminary permit for the project was issued to GB Energy Park in August 2013. The company is currently in consultations with state and federal agencies, local landowners, environmental groups and other interested stakeholders to identify, study and mitigate important issues related to the construction of this project, according to the Gordon Butte Pumped Storage Project website.
