After months of fundraising efforts, the George Gipp Ice Arena will receive a new ice generating system. Installation has begun and is on schedule. (Photo courtesy of the Village of Laurium)

LAURIUM — The installation of the new ice generating plant at the George Gipp Ice Arena is progressing, Village Trustee Jeff Erickson said.

The plant is set in and piped, and electrical wiring will be installed during the week, Erickson said. Bassett Mechanical Contracting of Kaukauna, Wis., is doing the installation work.

Another firm involved with the new plant donated two 10-horsepower frequency drives, he said, which saved the village about $8,000.

The frequency drive, an electronic motor controller that adjusts the speed of an AC motor by varying the frequency and voltage of the electrical power supplied to it, matches the motor’s speed to the system’s demand, VFDs reduce energy consumption.

Currently, Erickson said, RC Mechanical is conducting pressure testing on the system, which is an expense not included in the cost of the ice plant but, he said, is a necessary step. The cost of the testing will come from another fund dedicated to the project.

“Basically, what they’re doing is,” he said, “going through roughly 100 lines and pressure testing them for leaks. ”

The process will flush the lines, removing the glycol from the system and preparing to to receive polypropylene.

“I talked to them on Tuesday,” Erickson said. “They’ve got about 30 lines tested already, and they haven’t found any leaks.”

The next step, after the line testing is complete, is to build a concrete block protective structure on the exterior of the arena, with a metal roof to protect it from snow, he said.

When completed, the new compressor will be quieter than the old one, as well as double its capacity. “I don’t know if it’s going to be quite double,” said Erickson, “but it’s going to have a lot more capacity, so we’ll be able to run it a bit more efficiently than what we were.”

The target date for having ice in the arena is Oct. 1, but that will depend on the weather.

“Once we do the startup, as long as the long-range weather forecast looks decent for October, meaning colder temperatures, we can make ice and keep ice in there,” he said. “But if we start looking at 60-degree days, we’re not going to do it; it will be cost-prohibitive to do it.”