EPHRATA - Grant County PUD commissioners will decide at their next meeting whether or not to award a contract to replace 10 turbines at Priest Rapids Dam.

Utility district employees presented the options at the board's last meeting, and recommended replacing the turbines and generators rather than refurbishing them. The apparent low bidder on the project was Voith Hydro, with a bid of $61,598,000.

The analysts looked at various options, including deferring any upgrades, refurbishing some turbines and replacing others, and replacing all the turbines, Program Manager Brad Strickler said. Deferring upgrades wouldn't work because eventually the PUD wouldn't be able to meet its power contracts, Strickler said.

Analysts checked the costs of refurbishing some of the existing turbines and replacing others in varying ratios, Strickler said. While it turned out to be slightly more expensive to replace all 10 turbines, he said, in the long run the PUD will generate more profit if they're replaced.

The new equipment will increase efficiency by about 3.5 percent, district spokesperson Chuck Allen said. How much additional revenue will be generated will depend on electricity prices, said Mike McClenahan, one of the PUD's economic analysts.

If the commissioners approve the contract, the goal is to begin installation in about August 2016, Allen said. "We're going to do one of these a year for 10 years," he said. The plan is to replace the entire unit, generator and turbine, at one time, Allen said. Each unit will take six to eight months, he said.

Though the work will be done at the same time, a contract for the generators will be awarded later, because it doesn't take as much time to build those as it does the turbines, Allen said.

Turbine fabrication will begin this summer, since each unit will require building some custom parts, Allen said, turbine blades being one example. "There's a lot of prep work that's going to be invested in creating those parts."

Allen said the utility will sell bonds to pay for the project, and that the PUD's credit rating is still solid, despite the costs of repairing Wanapum Dam. (Utility district officials discovered a crack in one of the pillars supporting a spillway on Feb. 27.)

"We're still in a strong financial situation," Allen said.