Calpine Corp., Texas’ largest independent power producer,announced yesterday plans to build, own and operate an 800 MWnatural gas-fired cogeneration power plant at Bayer Corp.’schemical facility in Baytown, TX. Permitting for the $335 millionfacility is under way, the company said. The plant is expected tobegin commercial operation in late 2001.

The facility, which is expected to burn 135 MMcf/d, will employthree Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp. 501F combustion turbines,allowing it to run at increased efficiency, Calpine said. “Comparedto the average older gas-fired power plant in operation today,Baytown will use up to 40% less natural gas,” said Diana Taylor,Calpine’s senior vice president. “And by utilizing the latestgeneration in combined-cycle combustion turbine design and advancedemissions control systems, we can significantly reduce emissionscompared to older plants.”

The company said the plant will generate 700 MW of electricityunder baseload conditions, and will have the ability to add 100 MWof peaking power during hot summer months.

The agreement between the two companies dictates that theBaytown plant will supply Bayer with all of its electric and steamrequirements for 20 years. Sales to Bayer will generateapproximately 50% of the plant’s annual revenue. Excess power willbe sold into the ERCOT wholesale power market under a variety ofshort-, mid-, and long-term contracts, the company said.

The Baytown plant will be the newest addition to Calpine’scentral region power system. The San Jose, CA-based company alreadyhas six power plants (three in operation and three underconstruction) in the state. All of them are gas-fired. Once all ofthe plants are completed, they will burn a combined 610 MMcf/d toproduce a total of 3,700 MW.

“We have power plants in operation, under construction, or plannedin 14 states,” said Jimmy Glotfelty, a Calpine spokesman. “But Texasis our core area for gas-fired generation. We might generate moreelectricity in California, but we have geo-thermal and hydro assetsdoing a lot of the work. Texas is clearly where our gas-fired focusis, and we hope to expand it.” Glotfelty added that all the gasCalpine uses to fire these plants is bought from nearby pipelinesystems or supplied from the Sheridan Energy system, which Calpinebought last summer (see Daily GPI, Aug. 26).

Overall, the company currently has approximately 9,800 MW inoperation, pending acquisition, under construction or in announceddevelopment. Calpine’s goal is to reach 16,000 MW by 2003,Glotfelty said.

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