Sempra Energy Solutions, the retail marketing arm of San Diego-based Sempra Energy, announced Wednesday that it dedicated the first phase of a new combined heat/power generating plant at the sprawling $900 million Food and Drug Administration headquarters complex in Silver Spring, MD. Sempra Solutions has a 20-year contract with the FDA under the federal energy department’s performance-based contracting program.

The FDA complex sits on 130 acres of a former 600-acre Naval Surface Weapons Center, and will be developed over an extended period of up to 10 years, according to a federal General Services Administration (GSA) spokesperson. As such, the energy plant is being developed in phases as a natural-fired cogeneration facility. Currently one building is completed in the development, and a second one will open next year, the GSA spokesperson said.

The specific terms or value of the energy supply contract were not disclosed, but Sempra finances the centralized energy plant equipment and installation with no up-front cost to the federal agency, getting paid annually through the energy savings, which are estimated by the GSA to be about $2.5 million annually for the 6,200-employee complex in which all of the 14 buildings are interconnected.

Called White Oak, the consolidated FDA headquarters will include 3 million square feet, and Sempra Energy Solutions will provide both electricity as well as heating/cooling to the entire complex. The deal was structured through the GSA and the federal Department of Health and Human Services’ FDA, according to Sempra.

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