San Jose’s Calpine Corp. has gobbled up the development rightsto build, own and operate a 540 MW natural gas-fired electricitygenerating facility in the energy-hungry Midwest. During periods ofhigh demand, the new Fremont Energy Center in Ohio, which isscheduled to go online in mid-2003, could generate more than 700MW.

Permitting is expected to be completed by late this summer andconstruction on the $340 million facility should begin this fall,said Calpine’s Katherine Potter. Calpine acquired the developmentrights from Boston-based Buckeye Energy Projects LLC, a companymanaged by William J. Martin.

“The Fremont Energy Center is a flagship project with respect toour entry into the East Central Area Reliability Council (ECAR)power market,” said Bob Alff, Calpine senior vice president. “Theproject is ideally located in an area of the Midwest that isexperiencing growing demand for electricity.” He said Calpine, anindependent power company, was reviewing several proposals to “tollthe full output of the facility.”

Located near Toledo, Fremont Energy Center will use two advancedtechnology combustion turbines in combined-cycle with a singlesteam turbine, and will operate with natural gas and an advancedemissions control system.

Calpine plans to manage all aspects of project development,including engineering and design, construction, fuel supply andpower marketing. Two transmission systems owned and operated byFirst Energy and American Electric Power will interconnect with theproject.

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