Cinergy Corp. yesterday reported that its non-regulated affiliate, Cinergy Capital & Trading, is in the process of adding almost 1,000 MW of electricity to its generating portfolio in the southeastern United States through an acquisition of two of Enron North America’s power plants.

Included in the acquisition is Enron’s 494 MW natural gas-fired Brownsville generation facility located in Haywood County, TN, and a 504 MW gas-fired Caledonia generation facility located in Lowndes County, MS. Both facilities began operation in June 1999 and are located in the Southeastern Electric Reliability Council (SERC) region with interconnection to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s transmission system.

“This acquisition in combination with our recently deregulated Ohio generation and the peaking capacity added early this year creates for Cinergy a significant and balanced generation portfolio of baseload and peaking capacity,” said James E. Rogers, CEO of Cinergy Corp. “Importantly, these facilities can serve our large long-term customers in the Southeast, which is among the fastest growing areas in the country, as well as our Midwest customers.”

This latest transaction marks the fourth and fifth plant that Enron has unloaded in a month’s time. In November, Allegheny Energy Supply LLC entered into an agreement to purchase three of Enron North America’s power plants with a total of 1,710 MW in the Midwest (see NGI, Nov. 20).

The transaction will boost Cinergy’s generation portfolio to about 21,000 MW of owned, operated or under development power, with approximately a 15,000 MW portion of the portfolio being non-regulated.

The transaction must receive regulatory approvals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, among other governing bodies. Cinergy expects to close the deal during spring 2001.

Alex Steis

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