Americas Power Partners (APP) has teamed up with steam productand service provider Armstrong Service Inc. (ASI) to own, operate,maintain and improve the utility plant and systems for the H.J.Heinz food processing facility located in Muscatine, IA. Thecompanies signed the multimillion dollar agreement yesterday.

The term of the contract is “in excess of 10 years,” said APPDirector David Pequet. APP and ASI will purchase the power plantwhich is on the site of the Muscatine facility, and take over theresponsibility for Heinz’s utilities, including electrical power,natural gas, steam, compressed air, water and wastewater. Thecompanies also will install a new boiler, air compressor andreplace much of the distribution piping.

APP and ASI will be paid through a system which involves totalutility costs based on production from the Muscatine facility.Under the agreement, the companies will also focus on futureutility improvement opportunities and share savings benefits withHeinz.

“This agreement is another example of how the alliance ofAmericas Power Partners and Armstrong Service offers clients suchas Heinz the ability to obtain capital dollars for their existingutility systems, avoid expenditures on non-core assets and improveutility production and distribution systems to `Best in Class’performance levels. This contract lets Heinz focus on their corebusiness [food products] and APP/ASI focus on their core business[total energy outsourcing],” said Thomas Smith, president of APP.

Dan Polland, the Heinz Muscatine plant manager, said, “Byoutsourcing our entire utility responsibilities to APP/ASI, we nowhave an onsite energy partner providing utilities at the lowestcost available while improving our system reliability. Thisapproach also gives us the ability to better budget our utilitycosts in relation to product produced.”

Americas Power Partners develops, optimizes, owns and operatespower plant systems for industrial, institutional and commercialcustomers. More information on APP’s services can be found on theirweb site, www.americaspowerpartners.com.

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