Panda Energy Intl. Inc. paved the way for its entrance into theFlorida generation market yesterday by announcing that petitionsfor determination of need have been filed with the Florida PublicService Commission to build two 1,000 MW power plants. Both plantswill cost $300 million and are expected to begin commercialoperation in May of 2003.

The company said it made the filings on behalf of two affiliatecompanies – Panda Leesburg Power Partners, LP, and Panda MidwayPower Partners, LP. The Leesburg facility will be located in LakeCounty, west of the city of Leesburg. Panda Midway will benorthwest of the town of Port St. Lucie in St. Lucie County.

Panda said the facilities will employ state-of-the-art highefficiency gas turbines that use 2/3 less water and 1/3 less fuelthan traditional sources of generation. They will each burn 170MMcf/d, said Peggy Striegel, a Panda spokesperson.

The new plants would be welcome additions to a rapidly growingstate in need of additional power, according to Panda. The Dallas,TX-based company pointed to a 1999 10-year site plan prepared bythe Florida Reliability Coordinating Council which showed thatFlorida will need an additional 8,000 MW of electric powergeneration capacity by 2008.

Studies such as the one performed by the Coordinating Council havecaused enormous amounts of both generation and gas infrastructureactivity in Florida. Just last week, Reliant Energy announced itsplans to build a power facility in the state (see Daily GPI, March 1). Duke Energy and CoastalCorp. have also recently become active in exploring ways to exploitthe expected boom in the generation market.

Along with the generation activity, gas pipeline projects arealso being considered. Coastal’s Gulfstream project, a Duke Energyand Williams joint venture called the Buccaneer Pipeline and aFlorida Gas Transmission (FGT) expansion are all at various levelsin the approval process at FERC. Many of the generation facilityprojects, such as the Reliant Energy plant, have yet to select agas supplier, as they wait to see which pipeline will be selectedto compete with FGT’s existing system.

The Leesburg plant is one such facility. Striegel said it isnegotiating between the three competitors. The Midway facility,however, has already contracted with Coastal’s Gulfstream.

If approved, these two plants will be Panda’s first foray intoFlorida. The privately-held company has 10 GW of power underdevelopment across the United States. Construction is under way onthree 1,000 MW facilities in Marion, Paris and Odessa, TX. Thecompany also operates plants in Roanoke Rapids, NC, and Brandywine,MD.

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