[2] It operates three hydroelectric facilities and two reservoirs, Grand Lake, Lake Hudson, and the Salina Pumped Storage Project, which includes W. R. Holway Reservoir, It also owns and operates the GRDA Energy Center (formerly named the GRDA Coal-Fired Complex).
Even prior to Oklahoma statehood in 1907, Holderman began building political support for such a project.
A feasibility study by the Army Corps of Engineers attracted favorable attention in the Oklahoma legislature, leading to creation of the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA), a state agency, in 1935.
Control was returned to the GRDA by the Congress and President Truman amid local celebration in August 1946.
[5] In the late 1970s, the Authority decided to build the GRDA Coal-fired Power Generation Complex, located near Chouteau, Oklahoma.
Now more than four decades old, the two units need extensive retrofits to meet new emission regulations and to improve energy efficiency with more modern technologies.
The LPPC consists of the largest publicly owned not-for-profit, electric utilities in the U.S. LPPC’s priorities include tax and finance issues, interaction with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, energy and environmental policies.
[8] Governor Mary Fallin (R) issued an executive order in July 2013 to establish a 15-member task force that would research the possibility of dismantling GRDA and selling its assets.
[10] She said that she still supported the mission of the task force, she realized that the timing was bad and that the review could undermine GRDA's efforts to sell revenue bonds.
Google, Inc. contracted with GRDA to buy up to 48 megawatts of this power for its data center in Pryor, Oklahoma.
The A− rating was still in effect at the end of 2012, meaning that GRDA has very favorable terms for borrowing money.
[19] GRDA, as of Fiscal Year 2009, had an annual operating budget of $314 million and employed 450 employees (390 classified and 60 unclassified).