The city of Seaford, Del., has executed a memorandum of understanding with Chesapeake Utilities Corp., Dover, Del., to pursue expansion of the city's power plant. Under the proposed arrangement, Chesapeake Utilities will install three gas-fired generating units with a capacity of about 9.5 Mw at the Seaford power plant. Construction is anticipated to begin later this year and will be completed in the summer of 2001. The installed cost of the units is estimated at $8-9 million. Chesapeake will also help Seaford with the conversion of several existing oil-fired generating to operate on either gas or oil.
Duke Energy Corp. unit Duke Engineering & Services (DE&S), through its subsidiary DE&S Canada, said it has acquired Blakey & Blakey, a technical personnel services company specializing in nuclear power projects. Effective immediately, the business will operate as Duke-Blakey, a wholly owned subsidiary of DE&S Canada. Blakey & Blakey provided engineering and technical staffing and talent acquisition services to Canadian industry for 20 years.
AES Corp. subsidiary, AES Sirocco, has entered into an agreement under which AES will acquire the 49% interest held by TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. in the $325 million Songo Songo gas-to-electricity project in Tanzania, as well as assume overall project management responsibility, the company reported. The project consists of the refurbishment and operation of five natural gas wells in coastal Tanzania, the construction and operation of a 65 MMscf/day gas processing plant and related facilities, the construction of a 230 km marine and land pipeline from the gas plant to Dar es Salaam, and the conversion and upgrading of an existing 112 Mw power station in Dar es Salaam to burn natural gas, with an optional additional unit to be constructed at the plant. Financial close is expected by the end of 2000 or early 2001.
KeySpan Corp. said it has filed an application with the New York State Public Service Commission. to expand the generating capacity of its Ravenswood power plant in Long Island City by 250 Mw. When completed in 2003, the expanded power plant, will be primarily fueled by natural gas. Ravenswood is the city's largest power plant with a capacity of 2,168 Mw, or 28% the electric generation located in New York City. This year New York City is 300 Mw short of meeting its reliability requirement for in-city electric generation capacity, and the city's demand for electricity continues to grow at the rate of about 150 Mw/year.
American Transmission Co. LLC said it filed its open access transmission tariff with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and pledged to eliminate rate-pancaking across its service area. The ATC tariff is patterned after the Midwest Independent System Operator's open access tariff, which was accepted by FERC in 1998. ATC's proposed rates are calculated using substantially the same rate formula used in the MISO tariff, subject to a 5-year phase-in period to merge the original individual transmission tariffs into ATC's single-zone rate. ATC does not propose to qualify as a regional transmission organization under FERC's Order 2000. Rather, it will satisfy Order 2000 requirements by joining the MISO and operating under MISO authority when MISO begins operations in 2001. During the interim, ATC will administer its own tariff, providing transmission, and ancillary services.
Convergent Group Corp., Englewood, Col., reported its initial public offering of five million shares of common stock was priced at $7/share. The net proceeds of the offering will be used to repay outstanding indebtedness, to pay certain fees to one of Convergent Group's principal stockholders, and for working capital and general corporate purposes. Three selling stockholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 750,000 shares of common stock solely to cover over-allotments, if any.
