| Rosendin Electric: Bright Lights |
| Energy Executive Spotlight | |||
| Written by John Zorabedian | |||
| Thursday, 01 May 2008 | |||
 John Koester and Larry Hollis tell us how Rosendin is helping build the $8 billion MGM CityCenter.
 John Koester, regional VP To power this not-so-small city will require 88 megawatts of electricity. But in an energy-conscious environment, the developers—MGM and equity investor Dubai World—plan to have the entire complex LEED certified by the US Green Building Council for environmental sustainability and energy conservation. To generate more power for less, the lead contractor for the project subcontracted with San Jose, Calif.-based Rosendin Electric to build the complex’s central utility plant and back-up power station with cogeneration. Rosendin, whose share of the overall project is roughly $210 million, completed the $15 million utility plant in March, right on schedule. For a project this demanding, the primary contractor, Perini Building Co., needed an electrical subcontractor with the experience and capability to do the work seamlessly. Due to its track record on past major projects such as the Staples Center in Los Angeles and San Francisco’s AT&T Park (formerly PacBell) and significant experience with utility work, Rosendin was awarded the job. “We were asked to participate because of our good relationship with Perini and a track record of completed projects,” said John Koester, Rosendin’s regional vice president for Las Vegas. And because Rosendin is the county’s fourth-largest electrical contractor, he said, it has the financial stability and bonding capacity to undertake a project like this and complete it. Under the engineering firm Flack & Kurtz, Rosendin assisted in the design and construction of the central utility plant, which will provide hot water and emergency power throughout the complex through cogeneration, using excess heat from two natural gas-powered turbines to conserve energy. “Rather than exhausting waste heat to the atmosphere, we use that waste heat to generate more electricity,” Koester said.  Larry Hollis, VP of business development The CityCenter project is the feather in Rosendin’s cap, but the company built its reputation completing major projects for clients like Sun Microsystems, Intel, and other big Silicon Valley power users, wiring data centers, and microprocessor manufacturing plants. Now the company is looking to expand its portfolio in areas such as renewable energy, where it is a major player in wind power. The renewable energy unit is a rapidly growing sector of Rosendin’s business, said Larry Hollis, the company’s vice president of business development. Commercial and residential work has slowed over the past year, and Rosendin has jumped into other markets like wind power to diversify. “It’s a niche market,” Hollis said. “There are only a few general contractors that do this kind of work, and we have a great history and relationship with these contractors. About 85% of our work is repeat business with relationship-based customers.” Rosendin has completed nearly a dozen wind farms throughout the Southwest and West. Rosendin’s work includes building the substations and collection system to carry the power from the base of each of the turbines back to a substation, where it is transformed to transmission level voltage and fed into the electrical grid. The company’s power and utility work extends to natural gas power plant projects such as the Metcalf Energy Center in San Jose, a 600-megawatt plant featuring combustion turbines with added heat recovery steam generators and the 1,140-megawatt Moss Landing Power plant. “Metcalf is considered one of the most modern power generating facilities in the world, providing an ample supply of clean reliable energy to the Silicon Valley,” Hollis said. The company’s diversification of projects includes “clean work” like data centers as well as the dirtier power plant work and anything else that needs power and lighting—highways and other public infrastructure, schools, hospitals, high tech and biotech companies. “The key for our success is the diversity of our work,” Hollis said. “After the 2001 implosion, we went off to do projects in different areas of the country and different types of industries.” The company’s ability to see trends in the economy and emerging markets allows it to grab marketshare. “If we haven’t already positioned ourselves, we aren’t going to be able to take advantage of it,” Koester said. “Our wind group, for example, positioned itself in that market before it really hit, and now we’re an industry leader.” The company will ride that market until it can jump into a new one, he said. “We want to ride the crest while we can, get prepared for a downturn in any particular market niche, and then be prepared to get in on the next upswing.” With the economy souring, public spending is likely to pick up as the government looks to spend its way out of a recession. We think there will be a lot of opportunities there in the next couple of years, so we’re getting in position for that right now,” Koester said. |
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© 2008 American Executive - RedCoat Publishing. All rights reserved.
American Executive is a RedCoat Publishing publication.
American Executive is a RedCoat Publishing publication.
