Minneapolis-based NRG Energy Inc. is buying a 2,255 MW project portfolio from Indeck Energy Services Inc., which includes combined-cycle and peaking power plants serving the Chicago and upstate New York marketplace. The assets include the Rockford I and II Energy Centers, located 75 miles west of Chicago in Rockford, IL; Bourbonnais I and II Energy Centers, 50 miles south of Chicago; and the Ilion Energy Center in central upstate New York. No financial details were disclosed.

NRG CEO David H. Peterson said the acquisitions will complement the company’s strategy to develop “significant generation” in the Chicago-St. Louis-New Orleans corridor. “This marks a new development in our long relationship with Indeck,” which will provide project development services for NRG. The deal also will give NRG more trading flexibility when it is combined with NRG’s LS Power project portfolio acquisition completed earlier this year, and its South Central region assets, said NRG North America CEO Craig A. Mataczynski

The only two currently operating facilities are the Rockford I, which is a 342 MW simple cycle gas turbine facility that was completed in June 2000, and Ilion Energy, a 60 MW combined cycle co-generation gas and oil plant, which has been in operation since April 1993.

Rockford II, which will be a 171 MW simple cycle gas turbine facility, is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2002. Bourbonnais I, a 1,121 combined cycle facility, is in the “advanced development” stages, with expected completion set for the first quarter of 2004. Bourbonnais II, a 561 MW combined cycle facility, is also in advanced development, and is set to begin operations in the first quarter of 2005.

NRG owns a total of 21,612 MW of generating assets in operation or under construction. Its operations use diverse fuel sources, including natural gas, oil, coal, coal seam methane, biomass, landfill gas and hydro, as well as refuse-derived fuel.

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