For immediate release: 11/13/06

GRDA files declaratory judgment

Vinita — The Grand River Dam Authority has announced it will file a declaratory judgment action against Voith Siemens Hydro Power Generation (York, Pennsylvania) and VA Tech Hydro USA Corp. (Charlotte, North Carolina). The action, related to a recent competitive bid process for rehabilitation work at GRDA’s Markham Ferry Project, was approved by the GRDA Board of Directors at its Wednesday, November 8 meeting. It comes in response to legal action threatened by Voith, who submitted a nonconforming bid.

“As a state agency, GRDA competitively bids large capital projects through a sealed-bid process,” said GRDA General Counsel Gretchen Zumwalt-Smith. “The Voith bid was nonconforming and otherwise unacceptable in many respects. For instance, they excluded all warranties and generation guarantees.”

Though they submitted a higher bid, Zumwalt-Smith said the successful bidder (Alstom Power) did not have any such exclusions in their bid.

“GRDA simply wants to assure its customers that, prior to work beginning on the Markham Ferry rehabilitation project, it has properly awarded the bid,” said Zumwalt-Smith. "We feel this declaratory judgment action will help us to do that."

The Markham Ferry rehabilitation project will include a major overhaul of all four hydroelectric turbine-generators at GRDA’s Robert S. Kerr Dam and is anticipated to cost close to $70 million. When completed, the work is expected to increase the facility’s generating capacity by 15 percent.