Engineer-constructor Day & Zimmermann plans to complete mobilization by the end of the month to maintain and modify all of the Tennessee Valley Authority's hydroelectric dams plus gas, coal and pumped-storage hydroelectric facilities. The five-year service contract with TVA is valued at $985 million, according to D&Z.

TVA is the largest public power provider in the U.S. The federally owned utility works with more than 150 local power companies across seven Southeastern states to provide power to about 10-million people. Its power-generating assets include 29 hydroelectric sites, nine combustion turbine gas sites, eight combined cycle gas sites, five coal-fired sites and one pumped-storage site, as well as 14 solar and three nuclear power plants. 

The contract's scope also includes asbestos and lead abatement, and work with scaffolding, coatings and insulation. It does not include work at any of the three nuclear plants. 

D&Z has been working with TVA for more than 25 years, John McCormick, president of D&Z’s maintenance and construction division, said in a statement. The new contract has an option to renew for another five years.

TVA has various projects in the works. It is currently in the planning stages for a simple-cycle combustion turbine natural gas plant in New Caledonia, Miss., an expansion of the Allen Combustion Turbine site near Memphis, Tenn., and the removal of the Saulpaw Mill Dam on Oostanaula Creek in Calhoun, Tenn. 

Last year, the utility also announced its intent to more than double its solar power capacity with 6,000 MW of generation and storage. Those plans include construction of a 200-MW facility in Lawrence County, Ala., and a pilot project to convert a closed coal ash site at its Shawnee Fossil Plant outside Paducah, Ken., into a 100-MW facility. 

TVA has a form online for companies interested in becoming its contractors or suppliers.