While droves of developers are flocking to the Florida market tocash in on the gas-fired power generation bonanza, affiliates ofDallas-based Panda Energy are eyeing a market closer to home -Arkansas.

One Panda Energy affiliate, Trans-Union Interstate PipelineL.P., has asked FERC for the go-ahead to construct a”single-project pipeline” to supply 430,000 Dth/d for what will bethe largest gas-fired power generation plant in the United Stateswhen completed. A second affiliate, Union Power Partners, willbuild and operate the power facility.

Trans-Union proposes to build a 42-mile, 30-inch high-pressurepipeline from North Central Louisiana extending northward to aplanned 2,700 MW gas-fired facility in southern Arkansas, accordingto the application. In Louisiana, the proposed pipeline wouldinterconnect with Texas Gas Transmission Corp. and Gulf StatesPipeline’s intrastate system, which is undergoing expansion.

“They’re clearing for it [the plant] right now. This is going tobe the largest power plant in the country. To put it intoperspective, the generators at the Hoover Dam are around 2,000 MW.This is just immense,” said Ned Hengerer, a Washington D.C.attorney for Panda Energy, a developer of merchant power plants.

The generation facility will be “right on the Entergy system.They had brownouts last summer, and there’s a lot of old coal andoil units down there in Arkansas,” he said in explaining the needfor the gas-fired unit. The facility, which will be located in ElDorado, AR, is targeted for completion in 2002.

Trans-Union is seeking permission to build the pipeline underthe Commission’s Part 157 regulations, which would put it at riskfor the project’s costs. “Right now we’re just going from one pointto another point. If the opportunity ever arose [down the line]where we’d add another receipt point, we’d commit to makingwhatever filings that we would have to make.”

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