La Paloma Facility Will
Fill a Critical Need for New Electricity Supplies in California
San Francisco – Welcoming
the opportunity to provide competitive electricity to meet the growing
electricity needs of California, PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG) announced
today that its National Energy Group has begun construction on the
La Paloma Generating Plant. La Paloma is a 1,048-megawatt, natural
gas-fueled combined-cycle facility. The plant is expected to begin
operating in the summer of 2001.
PG&E National Energy Group
President & CEO Tom Boren said, “The construction of the La Paloma
facility is an important step in meeting the growing demand for
electricity in the state. We welcome the opportunity to further
the growth of customer choice in California's evolving competitive
power market.”
The California Independent
System Operator (ISO), a non-profit public benefit corporation responsible
for maintaining transmission reliability and ensuring adequate electricity
supplies, hailed La Paloma as a welcome addition. “As North America’s
only regional transmission operator relying on competitive market
forces to maintain the critical balance between electricity supply
and demand for California’s 27 million electric customers, the California
ISO is very pleased that PG&E’s National Energy Group has stepped
forward with the La Paloma facility to fill an essential consumer
need,” said Cal ISO President & CEO Terry Winter. “This investment
shows that the market is responding to the growing demand for electricity.”
“As a highly efficient plant
from both an energy and environmental standpoint, California consumers
will benefit,” added PG&E Corp.'s Boren. “The La Paloma Generating
Plant provides highly competitive costs with a minimum of energy
consumption and environmental impacts.”
The La Paloma plant site
is approximately 40 miles west of Bakersfield, Calif. in western
Kern County on an industrial site previously used for oil production.
When completed, it will be the state’s largest facility designed
from the ground up exclusively as a merchant power plant. A merchant
plant sells its electrical output to wholesale customers in a regional
competitive bulk power market. Those wholesale customers, who include
traditional utilities, municipal utility districts, retail energy
services companies, wholesale power marketers, and electric cooperatives,
in turn arrange to have the electricity delivered to retail consumers.
The La Paloma development
team has selected ABB ALSTOM POWER Inc. as the turnkey contractor
for the project. ABB ALSTOM POWER is responsible for the design
and engineering work, the procurement of equipment and management
of sub-contractors, and the actual construction of the facility.
The La Paloma Generating Project received its California Energy
Commission approval in October 1999, and the financing package for
the project is being completed now.
“The rigorous permitting
process really laid the ground for an outstanding construction program,”
said Roger Garratt, project development manager for PG&E Corporation’s
generating unit. “We look forward to making a major contribution
to the Kern County economy in a manner that is completely compatible
with the area's sensitive ecosystem.” Garratt noted the project's
plan to permanently set aside conservation land as part of its environmental
mitigation program.
PG&E Corporation with 1998
revenues of almost $20 billion, $33 billion in assets, and operations
in 27 states, markets energy services and products throughout North
America through its National Energy Group. The Corporation has ownership
and management interests in more than 30 power plants and has one
of the largest energy trading and risk management programs in North
America.