Industry News

Houston-based Tractebel North America will build a $300-million, 800-megawatt power generating system in Ennis, Texas. The plant is the third in north Texas for Tractebel and the second of its kind in Ennis. Tractebel is the energy division of French-based global energy services conglomerate Suez Group. 

San Diego-based Guepard Energy will construct four 5-megawatt plants in Imperial County, Calif., that will use methane gas from cow manure to make electricity. Construction of the first facility, located near a beef-processing plant in Brawley, will begin in April 2003. The four plants will cost $50-million to build and will process 1.6 million pounds of manure a day. The San Diego office of Archer Western, a division of Chicago-based Walsh Group, will oversee the project.

Keyspan Energy will relocate its New England headquarters from Boston to Waltham, consolidating several offices including locations in downtown Boston and West Roxbury. Keyspan will lease between 115,000 sf and 125,000 sf in the new location at 52 Second Ave.

The Food and Drug Administration has contracted Sempra Energy Solutions to construct a central utility plant at its 2.3 million-sf Silver Spring, Md. administration campus. The plant will use renewable energy by incorporating the use of photovoltaic panels, as well as efficient combined heat and power technology. Sempra's $98 million services contract includes supplying electricity as well as the heating and cooling infrastructure for the campus.

Valero Energy Corp. has completed construction of a $50-million, 51-megawatt cogeneration plant to power its Benicia refinery. The facility came online in October 2002 and eliminates the possibility of involuntary shutdowns due to rolling blackouts, as well as returning approximately 50 megawatts to the power grid. The plant is the first of two planned cogeneration units, the second of which will fuel plant operations and supply power to the grid.