Chugach signs new power plant contract
Chugach Electric Association recently hired SNC-Lavalin Constructors Inc. to design and build a new jointly owned natural gas-fired power plant being planned for the Anchorage area, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Montreal-based company with an office in Bothell, Wash., will provide engineering, procurement and construction work for the Southcentral Power Project, a new 183 MW power plant to be jointly owned by Chugach and Anchorage Municipal Light & Power.
Chugach will own 70 percent of the plant, with ML&P owning the remaining share.
CEA in charge of project Chugach, a member-owned cooperative, and ML&P, a municipal utility, together produce all of the electricity used in the Anchorage area. Chugach also sells power to several regional utilities in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley and on the Kenai Peninsula.
Chugach is in charge of the project and signed the contract the SNC-Lavalin. The contract runs through the completion of the project, expected to be in December 2012.
The plant will have three natural gas-fired turbines and a separate generator to produce power from waste steam. Chugach and ML&P will purchase the turbines separately.
The turbines are expected to be significantly more efficient than the aging generation facilities in place, helping to extend the life of declining Cook Inlet natural gas fields.
The Southcentral Power Plant is expected to cost between $300 million and $400 million.
—Eric Lidji
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