By Raychael Moseley / Managing Editor

Crews are working seven days a week on the Marshall Energy Center in hopes the facility will be operating by the end of the year.

Marshall Municipal Utilities General Manager Jeff Bergstrom gave an update on the project during the Board of Public Works meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 30.

The Marshall Energy Center is being built to provide additional electric generation capacity for MMU and help meet the community’s power needs.

The center is currently scheduled to begin commercial operations in January, according to the meeting report.

Bergstrom said the expected completion date had previously been moved to February but has since moved back to January. Crews are still working toward a December completion.

“It was February, they’ve got it backed up to January, and they’re still trying to get it to December,” Bergstrom said. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but if you go by there, they’re working seven days a week trying to meet that deadline.”

Some of the delays have come from waiting on supplies such as structural steel needed for parts of the facility, including areas connected to the intake and generator cooling systems.

“It wasn’t something you thought would have held them up,” Bergstrom said. “It was just some structural steel … and those lead times are what’s kind of holding back.”

MMU and others involved with the project have also been working on backup plans in case the energy center is not operating by the desired date. Bergstrom said how long those plans would be needed would depend on when the facility begins operations.

Planning is already underway for Phase Two of the energy center project.

MMU is continuing to work through those questions as planning for Phase Two moves forward.