Whitefish Company Tapped to Rebuild Puerto Rico Power Grid

[mahatmakanejeeves]

For more about this, see:

$300m Puerto Rico Recovery Contract Awarded to Tiny Utility Company Linked to Major Trump Donor

and

WP; Small Montana firm lands Puerto Ricos biggest contract to get the power back on

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Whitefish Company Tapped to Rebuild Puerto Rico Power Grid

Two-year-old company brokered $300 million contract with island’s electric utility

BY TRISTAN SCOTT // OCT 21, 2017

A Whitefish-based energy outfit is playing a key role in restoring power on the hurricane-ravaged island of Puerto Rico, a windfall for the relatively untested Montana company, whose CEO said it is well-equipped for such a massive undertaking in the rural and rugged region.

Officials with Whitefish Energy Holdings say the company’s experience and expertise working in the Mountain West, and CEO Andy Techmanski’s 20 years rebuilding transmission lines here, furnishes crews with a skillset uniquely tailored to meet the challenges of repairing and reconstructing electrical transmission infrastructure on the island’s mountainous terrain, which Hurricane Maria rolled across last month, killing at least 49 people and leaving the majority of the island without power and in the dark.

Last month, the company signed a $300 million contract with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) to repair and rebuild 100 miles of transmission lines on the western portion of the island, and hopes to start turning some of the lights back on in the coming days.
....

Formed in 2015 by Techmanski, Whitefish Energy began eying the former site of the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company as a potential campus to build a transformer manufacturing plant, in partnership with Brazil-based Comtrafo S.A., a leading transformer manufacturing firm. At the time, Techmanski estimated the company would need to generate $15 million to $20 million in backorders with regional utilities in order to justify the manufacturing center, which so far has not panned out.

There was this comment:

John Young · Butte, Montana

Sounds like a nice $300 million payoff to one of Zinke's friends:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/small-montana-firm-lands-puerto-ricos-biggest-contract-to-get-the-power-back-on/2017/10/23/31cccc3e-b4d6-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html

Like · Reply · 2 hrs

[mountain grammy]

1. Come on Congress!

Do your fucking jobs!!!!!

[CanonRay]

2. Puerto Rico should have power by 2039 or so.

These guys have two employees. It's a pass through scam, and the money will be gone before 5 miles or power line are built.

[octoberlib]

3. This is already out of the news. It wasn't even touched on the news channels last night

and that's sad because it's a big scandal. Zinke is in it up to his eyeballs.