Project: Power Generation
Client: Old Dominion Electric Cooperative and Virginia Electric Power Company
Location: Clover, VA
Construction Period: 1989–1995

In 1986, the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, which had no generating facilities of its own, initiated a plan to prevent potential problems in obtaining power for its customers. The cooperative selected Zachry, joined by three partners—Black & Veatch, ABB Combustion Engineering, and Westinghouse—to execute the project.

For this engineer/ procure/ construct startup power plant, the alliance, known as the Clover Consortium, completed two 400 Mw coal-fired electric generating stations. When completed in 1995, the Clover Power Station was the largest turnkey power plant ever constructed in the United States. It was also the cleanest coal-fired plant of its class east of the Mississippi River.

Some 1,096 Zachry employees, representing 15 construction disciplines, worked at Clover on the grassroots facility. Concrete poured exceeded 200,000 CYS, and structural steel erected exceeded 18,000 tons.

The blend of new technology and new construction techniques earned the project worldwide recognition in the power industry. Every aspect of the station was designed to minimize effects on the environment. The facility has a state-of-the-art baghouse scrubber with a 99.9 percent removal efficiency for fly ash, a wet limestone scrubber that eliminates 94 percent of the sulfur dioxide from plant emissions and one of the most elaborate control systems ever designed.

The alliance combined precision engineering with expertise, flexibility and streamlined processes. Together, the alliance partners overcame early delays due to permitting problems with regulatory agencies to complete the project on time and within budget.

The Clover Power Station is capable of generating some 880 Mw—880,000 kilowatts—of electricity and of providing more than 800,000 households with reliable electrical energy.