TVA to Pay Contractor $180 Million for Gas Plants
By Dave Flessner, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.
Dec. 28–The Tennessee Valley Authority will pay up to $180 million to one of its long-term contractors to help expand its electricity generation from natural gas-fired power plants, agency officials said.
URS Corp., which acquired Washington Group International in November, announced last week it has been awarded a $180 million contract to help TVA design, build or renovate both combined-cycle and simple-cycle gas plants.
The first project under the 30-month contract is to design and build a combined-cycle plant next to TVA’s existing Lagoon Creek turbine plant in Haywood County, Tenn.
TVA spokesman Gil Francis said the combined-cycle, gas-fired plant is scheduled to begin operation in 2010 and will help TVA meet its peak power demands at less cost than the simple-cycle gas plants TVA now owns for such purposes. Mr. Francis said TVA hopes to secure the required air emissions permit for the new Lagoon Creek plant by next summer.
Haywood County Mayor Franklin Smith said most residents in the area support the project.
“We have both natural gas pipelines and transmission lines through our county so there has been a lot of interest in building these types of plants in our area,” Mr. Smith said. “They’ve provided an economic boost during their construction and, for the most part, I think people are glad they are here.”
In 1997, Enron built the first fossil fuel generating plant in Tennessee not owned by TVA in Haywood County. That plant is now operated by Cynergy.
TVA built a 1,020-megawatt, simple-cycle turbine plant at Lagoon Creek in 2001 and will build the new 600-megawatt plant on a neighboring site. Each megawatt powers about 600 homes in the Tennessee Valley.
Stephen G. Hanks, president of URS’ Washington Division, said the new plant continues a 15-year record of construction and repair work the Washington Group has done at TVA coal and hydro-electric plants.
“We are pleased to be expanding our relationship with TVA through this important alliance,” he said in a prepared statement.
But the new Lagoon Creek plant will be the first of its kind owned by TVA.
The federal utility scrapped its first attempt to build a combined-cycle plant near Tullahoma, Tenn., five years ago in favor of rebuilding its oldest reactor at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant. Ron Hall, general manager of combustion turbine plants at TVA, said the new Lagoon Creek plant should be built at less cost than the canceled $450 million Tullahoma plant because it is being built from surplus parts from other abandoned plants.
“We are working to achieve a more cost-effective mix of purchased power and power generated by TVA plants,” Mr. Hall said.
Combined-cycle gas plants use waste heat generated from the simple-cycle turbine to generate more steam for electricity generation. Combined-cycle plants typically are used for six to 16 hours a day during hot summer or cold winter months, Mr. Hall said.
So far this year, TVA has bought gas-fired plants in Tennessee and Kentucky and signed a long-term lease to operate a combined-cycle gas plant in Mississippi.
E-mail Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com
WHAT’S NEXT
— In February, TVA plans to file a request to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation for an air emissions permit to build a combined-cycle gas plant in Brownsville, Tenn.
— If approved, construction will begin by next September, and the 600-megawatt plant is scheduled to be completed by June 2010.
— In 2008, TVA will consider buying or building at least one other gas-fired power plant.
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