Calpine to add power generation to New
England grid
NEW YORK, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Calpine Corp. (NYSE:CPN - news), the
largest U.S. independent power company, said Monday it expects to put
two clean, natural gas-fired power plants in service in the Northeast over
the next few weeks.
The two, combined-cycle plants, which will be operated by Calpine's partner, the privately held
Energy Management Inc. (EMI) of Dartmouth, Mass., are the 265-megawatt (MW) Tiverton facility
in Tiverton, R.I., and the 265-MW Rumford facility in Rumford, Maine.
``Tiverton became fully operational this week, while Rumford is about three-weeks behind and
expected to be operational during the first week of September,'' Calpine spokesman John Slumerfelt
told Reuters.
In the autumn of 1998, Calpine, based in San Jose, Calif., invested $40.0 million in each of the plants
being developed by EMI. For its investment, Calpine received 66.7 percent of the cash flow from
Rumford and 62.8 percent from Tiverton until a specified pretax return is reached, whereupon
Calpine and EMI will share the cash flows.
The commercial operation of the plants was delayed several months by events that eventually led to
the bankruptcy of the plants' former general contractor, Stone & Webster.
Before the plants ended up in receivership, however, Calpine stepped in and completed their
construction.
Tiverton was supposed to be operational in June and Rumford was supposed to start up in August.
Stone & Webster began building both plants began in late 1998.
At the time of its investment, Calpine estimated it would cost $160.0 million to build Rumford and
$172.5 million to build Tiverton.
In addition to Tiverton and Rumford, Calpine was building a 545-MW combined-cycle, gas-fired
plant in Westbrook, Maine for about $300 million with commercial operation scheduled for March
1, 2001 and a 545-MW gas-fired plant in Ontelaunee Township in eastern Pennsylvania with
commercial operation scheduled for May 2002.
In the development stage, Calpine was looking to build the 540-MW gas-fired Wawayanda Energy
Centre in Middletown, N.Y. and the 500-MW gas-fired Towantic Energy Centre in Oxford, Conn.
with commercial operation of Towantic planned for January 2003 and Wawayanda seen for January
2004.
Already in operation in the Northeast, Calpine has an interest in the following gas-fired plants:
- 165 MW Bayonne plant in Bayonne, N.J. (7.5 percent)
- 57 MW Bethpage plant in Hicksville, N.Y. (100)
- 169 MW Dighton plant in Dighton, Mass. (50)
- 150 MW Grays Ferry plant in Philadelphia (40)
- 107 MW Kennedy plant in Jamaica, N.Y. (100)
- 184 MW Lockport plant in Lockport, N.Y. (11.36)
- 58 MW Newark plant in Newark, N.J. (80)
- 122 MW Parlin plant in Parlin, N.J. (80)
- 22 MW Philadelphia plant in Philadelphia (66.4)
- 40 MW Stony Brook plant in Stony Brook, N.Y. (100)
In its portfolio, Calpine has about 25,700 MW of base load capacity and 4,700 MW of peaking
capacity in operation, under construction and in development in 27 states and Alberta, Canada.
--S DiSavino, New York Power Desk, +212-859-1622, fax +212-859-1758, e-mail
scott.disavino@reuters.com
Lynn |
