WESTERN GOVERNORS' ASSOCIATION
POWER WATCH CLEARINGHOUSE

NEW GENERATING CAPACITY

last update: 04/12/02 10:27 AM

April 8 
The Arizona Corporation Commission has approved the 1,080 MW La Paz Generating Facility in southwestern Arizona. The plant will include a 100 kW solar array. It is expected to go online in 2005. 

February 13
The Arizona Corporation Commission has agreed to Duke Energy's request to construct a 600-megawatt expansion of the Arlington Valley Energy Facility, currently under construction in western Maricopa County, but also added two environmental restrictions. The ACC is requiring groundwater recharge and the installation of the most effective emission control equipment available.

Calpine has announced it will complete 27 power projects (15,200 MW) currently under construction as scheduled but construction of an additional 34 advanced-stage development projects (15,100 MW) will be placed on hold pending further review. In the West, the approximate number of projects under construction include: 3 in California, 1 in Arizona, 1 in Oregon, and 6 in Texas. The approximate number of western projects under development that will be placed on hold include: 9 in California, 2 in Colorado, 1 in Texas, and 1 in Alberta.  

January 9 
Public Service Company of New Mexico will build a new 80-megawatt natural gas-fired generating station in Lordsburg.

January 4
PPL announces it will cancel one power plant it planned to build in Washington State. 

December 18
Avista sells one-half of Coyote Springs project in Oregon to Mirant. The 280-megawatt, combined-cycle power project is scheduled to come on line in mid-2002.

December 14
BPA will purchase 90 MW from Stateline wind farm.

November 15
PNM breaks ground on 225 MW Afton Generating Station in southern New Mexico.

50 MW Rock River 1 wind farm goes on line in Wyoming.

November 14
BPA will purchase output of 50 MW Oregon wind farm.

Reliant Energy breaks ground on 550 MW Bighorn project in southern Nevada.  The natural gas-fired plant will use "dry-cooling" technology.

October 5
Sempra Energy and CMS Energy will develop a LNG terminal in northern Baja California to bring natural gas supplies into northwestern Mexico and Southern California.

September 24
The California Energy Commission has approved the construction of the 600 MW Metcalf Energy Center in San Jose. Calpine and Bechtel Enterprises are scheduled to begin construction on the project this October with commercial operation expected to serve the summer load of 2003.

September 18
Two more peaker plants go on line in California. There has been 1,815 MW added in California this year.

September 17
The California Power Authority is negotiating approximately 1320 MW of
renewable energy projects, comprised mainly of wind and bio-fuel.

August 30
Reliant Energy has announced plans for an innovative air cooled natural gas power plant southwest of Phoenix. Phase 1 is planned to go online in spring 2004 and will include a 580-megawatt, combined-cycle dry plant.

August 27
The Department of Energy has issued a Federal Register notice seeking applications from U.S. nuclear utilities/power generating companies to conduct an Early Site Permit scoping study of potential sites for the deployment of new nuclear power plants in the United States.

Great River Energy is focusing on three potential sites in North Dakota for
new Lignite Vision 21 coal plant.

Aug. 17
Pinnacle West Energy plans to build 570 MW gas-fired plant 20 miles north of Las Vegas.

August 16
Portland General Electric has brought a 24.5 MW natural gas unit online at
the Beaver Power Plant.

July 23
The Burbank Landfill Gas Microturbine Power Plant, which uses the Capstone microturbine system, began producing nearly 300 kilowatts of electricity.

July 21
Mirant has said it may shut down 600 MW of its Pittsburgh plant next year if it does not receive air emission waivers from California state officials. At issue are four peaker units, natural gas-fired boilers and turbines built in 1954. Air pollution standards that cover the plant are scheduled to get tighter at the end of the year, but the cost of bringing the four units into compliance with the new standards would be exorbitant, Mirant said.

July 20
Tucson Electric Power takes steps to add two coal-fired units to the
Springerville Generating Station. The company notes that improvements in
the emission control capabilities of units 1 and 2, combined with the use of enhanced technologies on units 3 and 4, will result in the addition of 760 megawatts of capacity at the station, with an overall reduction in SO2 and NOx emissions below current levels.

July 18
TransAlta announced today that Pierce Power LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, has received all the necessary regulatory approvals for a new simple-cycle gas-fired power plant to be built in Frederickson, Washington. The 154 MW plant will consist of seven portable GE gas-fired turbines installed on a site leased in Pierce County for a 14-month period.

July 16
90 megawatt peaker plant goes on line in San Diego.

July 12
Neutrogena Corporation and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power have completed installation of a 200 kilowatt, $1.4 million solar power system at the company’s headquarters, located near LAX.

July 11
California Governor Davis announces that the eleventh peaker plant has been licensed. The eleven plants will provide 925 megawatts when they all come on line.

July 10
American Indian tribal leaders joined a group of Middleton, Idaho residents Monday in opposition to the proposed power plant site southeast of Middleton favored by Ida-West Energy Co.

July 9
None of the nearly 30 power plants planned for the Pacific Northwest will operate on hydropower but will instead rely on natural gas, wind and coal to generate energy.

Third new power plant opens in California.

July 2
New 540 MW Sutter Energy Project is ready to start producing power. The Calpine plant uses natural gas with very low emissions, and 90 percent less ground water because of a huge air-cooled condenser which recycles all cooling water. The plant is also highly automated, requiring just 25 people to keep it running fulltime.

Public Service Company of New Mexico has announced plans to build a new gas-fired plant in southern New Mexico. The plant will provide power to Texas-New Mexico Power in addition to PNM.

June 27
New 320 MW natural gas plant goes on line in California.

June 19
Calpine cleared one of the last hurdles to its power plant in South San Jose on Monday when key energy officials endorsed the project but insisted on some environmental mitigation measures. Calpine will be forced to install technology to reduce air emissions and noise, and the latter adjustment could add $5 million to the estimated $300 million to $400 million price tag for the Metcalf Energy Center.

Madera Power, a biomass-fueled generation facility located near Fresno,
California, has begun operations and is supplying up to 25 megawatts of
electricity to the California market.

June 14
NorthWestern will build 240 MW natural gas plant near Great Falls, Montana.  First 80MW unit will come on line in fall 2001.

June 13
California Governor Davis today announced the licensing of the tenth summer-reliability (or "peaker") power plant by the California Energy Commission under the expedited emergency review process. The Chula Vista 2 Peaker Generating Station Project will add 58 megawatts to the electrical grid this summer, and 62.4 megawatts in 2002. 

June 10
A 324 MW natural gas generation plant will be built at the Port of Tacoma.

June 8
Calpine Corporation plans to build a 600-megawatt electric generating facility to be located in southwestern Riverside County, California. The proposed Inland Empire Energy Center will feed directly into Southern California Edison's power grid and is intended to serve the rapidly growing counties of Riverside and San Bernardino. Construction is scheduled to begin in mid-2002, with commercial operation targeted for late 2004.

June 7
Two power companies that have proposed plants for northeast of Las Vegas at Apex have been granted the right to lease rights to 1,400 acre feet of water a year over 25 years at an as-yet unspecified rate.  In return for having been granted the water rights, the companies agreed to supply the Las Vegas Water District with 500 megawatts of power a year at below-market rates.

Calpine announced its new 540-megawatt South Point Energy Center in Arizona is generating and selling electricity into the wholesale power market. The plant is located at the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation in Mohave County, Arizona and will sell power in the Arizona, California, Nevada market.

June 6
The Deseret Generation and Transmission Corp. is looking at building an 80-megawatt plant next to the company's Deserado Coal Mine outside Rangely or 35 miles southwest of Rangely next to the company's existing coal-fired power plant at Bonanza, Utah. 

June 5
After a decade in which almost no coal-fired power plants were built in the United States, suddenly 34 coal plants are being planned across the country to meet increasing power needs, analysts said on Tuesday.

June 4
FERC has approved a plan to permit a temporary increase in hydroelectric
generation at the Priest Rapids Hydroelectric Project in Washington State.

June 1
The new Wyoming Energy Commission has begun discussing how to provide more power lines and power plants to help meet the nation's demand for more electricity. The 15-member commission, led by non-voting Chairman Gov. Jim Geringer, held its first meeting Wednesday. The commission plans to meet monthly and present a report for the Legislature by Dec. 15.

Calif. Governor Gray Davis announced today that California has signed a 10-year agreement with GWF Energy to provide a total of 430 megawatts of electricity to the State beginning September 1, 2001.  The power will be supplied by GWF's 90 megawatt Hanford Energy Park Peaker Plant. Two additional plants by the company are expected to be built and in operation in California by 2002.

May 31
California licenses 16th plant. The 530 MW natural gas plant, Contra Costa Power Plant Unit 8, will be built by Mirant Delta LLC and is scheduled to be online in early 2003.

May 24
Mirant Corp. has agreed to provide California with 500 MW of power under a 19 month contract beginning on June 1.

The nation's nuclear utilities are preparing to build at least 50 power plants in the next 20 years, the industry's top officials announced today.

Desperately seeking megawatts, San Diego Gas & Electric Co. wants to pay local industries to fire up their high-polluting emergency diesel generators this summer to relieve the electricity grid and avoid rolling blackouts.

Mexican Energy Secretary Ernesto Martens said yesterday that Mexico won't set any limit on the number of power plants in Baja California supplying electricity north of the border.

BPA and Columbia Falls Aluminum Company, located near Kalispell, Mont., have reached an agreement to close the plant for up to two years.  The agreement will free up  power to be used elsewhere.

California has licensed another "peaker" plant. Calpine Corporation's
135-megawatt Gilroy City Project is expected to come on-line by September 30, 2001.

May 17
While the Northwest looks warily toward a shortage of hydropower this year, a boom in natural gas-fired generating plants is sweeping the region, promising more power and a new set of energy challenges.  

May 16
The Bonneville Power Administration today announced an agreement with Alcoa that will curtail operations at the Alcoa Ferndale (Intalco) plant for up to two years and compensate workers in the interim.  The agreement is key to shrinking an upcoming region-wide wholesale electric rate increase scheduled for Oct. 1. 

California issues a license for a 15th major power plant. The 500 MW Three Mountain Power Plant will be a combined cycle, natural gas-fired facility.

International Fuel Cell announced the sale of a 200 kilowatt fuel cell to
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

May 10
Governor Gray Davis today announced the licensing approval of 545 megawatts at two California power plants: a 450-megawatt power plant retooling project in Huntington Beach and a 95-megawatt summer reliability project in Hanford.

May 7
FERC approves El Paso Natural Gas' plan to convert oil pipeline to carry
natural gas. The 785 mile pipeline runs from Texas to the Arizona/ California border. It will provide an additional 230 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

Calpine Corporation and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners today announced an open season on the proposed Sonoran Pipeline which would run from the San Juan Basin in New Mexico to the California border. The companies are also exploring extending the pipeline from the California border to the San Francisco Bay area.

The Northwest Generating Station nuclear plant will close for one month for refueling.

BPA announces plans for a 150 MW wind farm in Washington state.

May 4
Governor Gray Davis today announced that the State has signed a 10-year, $7 billion agreement with Sempra Energy Resources, the wholesale power-generation subsidiary of San Diego-based Sempra Energy, to supply up to 1,900 megawatts (MW) of electricity to California.

San Diego Gas & Electric unveiled a novel plan Thursday to pay customers to fire up their backup generators when blackouts threaten.  The utility said the program could cut demand on the power grid by 50 megawatts -- enough to serve about 37,500 homes -- allowing it to avoid or minimize blackouts this summer in San Diego and southern Orange County. 

ND Governor John Hoeven discussed new initiatives designed to help the agricultural and energy sectors of the North Dakota economy.  Great River Energy received $10 million in state funds to explore construction of its own electric generating plant. Another $10 million was made available to Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. for exploring the possibility of building a new power plant near Gascoyne, North Dakota. Both Great River and Montana Dakota must match the state money with their own investment.

Since Jan. 1, companies have applied for 13 permits to investigate building new hydroelectric plants on Idaho rivers. That includes placing turbines at the existing Ririe, Blackfoot, and Mackay dams in eastern Idaho. 

April 25
California Governor Davis announces he has formed The Governor's Generation Implementation Taskforce to speed construction of new powerplants.

Governor Gray Davis today announced that two additional summer reliability power plants have been licensed under the California Energy Commission's expedited review process. 

The Boulder City Council (Nevada) unanimously approved two plans that
would bring extensive solar energy facilities -- to be used both commercially and for research -- to a 3,000 acre city-owned parcel in Eldorado Valley.  The 3,000-acre energy zone is about 14 miles southwest of city limits and within an 85,000-acre desert tortoise preserve.

April 24
Mega-Energy Inc. is negotiating with the Calif. Department of Water Resources to build two 48-megawatt generating plants fired by natural gas, said Greg Tropsa, the company's vice president. That's enough to supply power to around 96,000 homes.  If everything falls into place, the two plants would be running by about Sept. 30, Tropsa said.

April 20
PG&E Corp. won final approval Wednesday to build a $350 million natural-gas fired power plant in San Diego County capable of supplying electricity to 500,000 homes. Construction is expected to begin later this year on the 510-megawatt Otay Mesa Generating Project, located 15 miles southeast of San Diego near the U.S.-Mexico border. Company officials say the plant will come online by summer 2003.

April 18
Governor Gray Davis today urged the California Energy Commission to approve construction of the Metcalf Energy Center, a proposed 600 megawatt power plant in southern San Jose.  Since taking office, Governor Davis has cut approval times for licensing new power plants in half and licensed 13 major power plants. Seven are under construction in addition to two peaker plants. Four are scheduled to be online this summer, three more by next summer. Ten more are in the pipeline for the summer of 2003.

April 16
Officials in San Jose, Calif., this month approved construction of the world's largest Internet server farm, a 2.2-million-square-foot behemoth that will consume enough electricity to light 250,000 Silicon Valley homes. The trade-off: The facility's owner, US DataPort, had to agree to build a 250-megawatt generating plant to power the project.

A proposed 760-megawatt power plant on the Moapa Paiute reservation, 45 miles northeast of Las Vegas, has cleared its first major hurdle.

April 11
Transalta has begun construction of a 248-megawatt (MW), natural gas-fired combined-cycle power plant in Washington. The new plant will be located next to Transalta's coal-fired Centralia plant.

TransCanada has also announced plans to build the Bear Creek Cogeneration Project, an 80 megawatt (MW) natural gas-fired cogeneration power plant near Grande Prairie, Alberta.

April 10
Questar Pipeline has secured customers for proposed natural gas pipeline from New Mexico to California border.

North American Power Group announced it has filed an application with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality for permission to build a new 500 megawatt coal-fired power plant next to Kennecott Energy Co.'s Cordero Rojo Complex mine south of Gillette. Denver-based NAPG expects its new 500 megawatt power plant to be in production by early 2005. 

April 9
A Houston company plans to build two new power plants near Las Vegas, Nevada.  Reliant Energy Inc. executives said they will spend $500 million to build two plants near Primm, Nev., 43 miles south of Las Vegas near the California state line.

April 5
Gov. Kenny Guinn today will detail plans for new power plant construction in Nevada, the result of a streamlined permitting process that is part of his Nevada Energy Protection Plan. 

A St. George, Utah, company is on the last leg of a decade-long project that could put a hydroelectric power plant on Blue Diamond Hill on the western outskirts of Las Vegas. 

April 4
Soon Energy Northwest (formerly WPPSS), the Bonneville Power Administration and other regional leaders will begin to examine the feasibility of completing Washington Nuclear Plant-1.  Construction of this commercial nuclear power plant was suspended by the Washington Public Power Supply System 1982 after it became economically untenable to continue, but the plant has been preserved since that time.

Governor Gray Davis today announced that the first two peaker plants have been licensed under the California Energy Commission's expedited review process. The two power plants, located in Palm Springs and San Diego, will provide electricity at peak use times this summer. 

March 28
Colorado Governor Owens calls an electricity summit and issues principles to correct what he called "a decade of under-investment in our electric power capacity."

California is holding its second "energy fair" to encourage development of peaker plants.

March 27
To create a pool of reasonably priced, reliable power for beleaguered Montana industries that use large amounts of electricity, NorthWestern Corporation today joined with Governor Judy Martz in proposing the construction of a 240-megawatt electric generation facility which would devote a significant majority of its potential output to Montana industrials at cost.

March 23
BPA has agreed to build a new a 230-kilovolt terminal in Washington by January 2002 so electric power from Goldendale Energy Project's proposed 248-megawatt gas-fired combustion turbine will be connected to the Northwest energy grid.

A new 249 MW coal plant is proposed for north west Washington State. The plant would be built by U.S. Electric Power of Point Lookout, N.Y. The size of the plant puts it just under the requirement for review by the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, which recently turned down a larger natural gas plant due to pollution concerns. The coal plant will use ultralow sulfur coal from British Columbia, and use stack scrubbers and other technology to make the coal plant at least as clean as a natural-gas-fired plant, sponsors said. There will also be a partial offset of carbon-dioxide emissions - the major cause of global warming - through reforestation of land in northwestern Washington.

March 22
California Governor Davis has announced the licensing of three new powerplants. The three plants will provide 2076 MW of power when they start to come on line in late 2002.

Williams has announced an expansion of its Kern River natural gas pipeline.  The expansion will more than double the amount of natural gas transported on the 926-mile pipeline system and will provide 900 million cubic feet per day of additional transportation capacity from Wyoming to California by May of 2003.

March 21
Calpine Corporation has acquired the development rights from Enron North America for the 750-megawatt natural gas-fired Pastoria Energy Center planned for Kern County, Calif. The project was licensed by the California Energy Commission in December 2000 and is expected to begin construction this summer. Energy deliveries are scheduled to begin by summer 2003.

March 19
Calpine Corporation has signed an agreement with Excel Energy of Colorado to provide 336 MW of peaking power. Calpine's subsidiary will build a new natural gas power plant east of Denver, Colorado. Construction will begin in the summer of 2002 and commercial operation will begin in 2003.

March 13
A California Energy Commission committee has recommended approval of the 510 MW Otay Mesa natural gas plant to be located near San Diego. The project plans to use dry cooling technology to reduce the consumption of potable water, and would use the best available control technology to reduce air emissions to insignificant levels. The project will also implement an innovative program of air emission offsets.

March 7
The Bonneville Power Administration has signed an agreement with McCook metals to reduce output at the Longview aluminum smelter for the next 16 months and sell the power to BPA. The 420 MW of power will be sold to BPA at less than half the current market price. McCook will use the proceeds to provide salary and benefits to the employees during the curtailment.

Washington Governor Locke has announced several new power plants that will
be built in the state and agreements that will help reduce air pollution.

The California Energy Commission approved the United Golden Gate Power Project, a 51-megawatt simple cycle power plant proposed for construction at the San Francisco International Airport in San Mateo County.

March 5
California Governor Davis has announce the signing of 40 long-term power contracts between the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and power generators. The contracts will supply an average of 8,886 MW per year over the next 10 years. For the first five years, the average price is $79/MWh - approximately 75 percent below the recent spot market prices. For the second five years, the average price drops to $61/MWh - about 80 percent below recent spot market prices.

February 27
Constellation Energy Group of Baltimore will begin construction in April of the 750-megawatt High Desert natural gas-fired power plant near Victorville in southern California. The $350 million High Desert project, is expected to begin producing power in June 2003.

February 26
Black Hills Energy Capital has announced plans to build a 500 MW coal-fired power plant near Gillett, Wyoming. The plant would be an independent power facility and power would be sold on the wholesale market. The project, which  could be operational in 2005, is contingent upon three primary factors: an expedited regulatory approval timetable, the availability of adequate electric transmission access to multiple markets, and the securing of long-term power contracts for the energy produced by the project. Black Hills is also constructing Wygen I, an independent 90 MW coal-fired plant, which is expected to be operational in mid-2003, and another 40 MW gas-fired unit which is expected to be operational by mid-2001.

A national shortage of natural gas turbines may impact California's plans to have new "peaking" power plants to be up and running by July 31.

February 21
California Gov. Davis release Energy Commission report listing 32 potential locations for the siting of "peaking" power plants to help meet the demand for electricity this summer. The report lists an initial round of sites that have a 95 percent or better probability of being licensed under the State's emergency siting process. All sites have sufficient land to accommodate a temporary peaking plant of 50 megawatts or more.

February 16
The Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC) has recommended that the application to build a natural gas-fired electric generation facility in Sumas, Wash. be denied. The Council determined, that "after careful consideration of the state’s need for energy at a reasonable cost and the need to minimize environmental impacts, that the environmental costs outweigh the energy benefits that would be provided by this facility as proposed at this location." EFSEC stated in its ruling that "Sumas Energy 2 Inc. has not shown that the plant would produce direct energy or economic benefits to consumers or lead to lower energy costs in Washington or in the region."

The EFSEC recommended that the permit for the Chehalis Generation Facility,
a planned natural gas-fired electrical plant, be changed so the facility would be allowed to increase its power from 460 megawatts to 520, use air to cool turbines rather than water, and sell its electricity on the open market.  Locke is expected to make a decision by mid-April.

February 14
California will relax the air pollution limits this summer so power plants
can produce more electricity. The plants will have to purchase ``offset
credits'' in order to be eligible, and will have to install state-of-the-art
pollution equipment sooner, said Winston Hickox, secretary of the California
Environmental Protection Agency. Proceeds from the purchase of offset
credits will go toward pollution abatement programs, he said.

February 9
California Governor Gray Davis issued five executive orders governing
expedited permitting of generation facilities, environmental restrictions
affecting generation from existing power plants, authority of the California
ISO over plant outages and operation, and establishment of an emission
reduction credit bank.

February 8
California Gov. Davis announces plan to accelerate construction of power
plants and to speed up permitting process. The governor's plan will provide
for bonus for early construction of plants, set up a State Emissions Offset
Bank and provide incentives for distributed generation and renewables.

February 2
A California Energy Commission committee has recommended approval of a 51 megawatt peaker project in the San Francisco area. The project is the first
accepted under the expedited review procedures directed by legislation
signed in September.

January 30
Gas-fired power plant proposed for Arizona

January 17
260 megawatt wind farm in Nevada will start to provide power by the end of
the year