900MW Plant in Louisiana is Scheduled for December Operation

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources Incorporated; Houston, Texas). In early 2001, American Electric Power and Dow Chemical Company agreed to construct a cogeneration facility at Dow's Louisiana chemical complex. Construction started in December that year, on the eight-acre Plaquemine Cogeneration Facility, in Plaquemine, Louisiana. The $325-million, 900-megawatt natural gas-fired combined-cycle plant includes four General Electric combustion turbines, four heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs), and a 212-megawatt Alstom steam turbine. Commercial operation is scheduled for December 2003.

The Plaquemine Cogeneration Facility is situated on the same site with Dow's two existing polyvinyl chloride (PVC) chemical plants. Space restrictions and minimal overhead clearances have made construction on the new plant a challenge, such as placement of cranes to perform the construction work.

Performance Contractors Incorporated (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) is the general contractor for the plant. Once the project is complete and operational, American Electric Power (AEP) will provide maintenance for the plant and Dow will be responsible for its operation.

American Electric Power Services Corporation will own the Plaquemine plant. The company is a subsidiary of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) (Columbus, Ohio), one of the nation's largest investor-owned utility holding companies. It operates throughout the Midwest providing seven million people with electrical power.

Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) (Midland, Michigan) is a global science and technology company that develops and manufactures chemical, plastic and agricultural products and services to many consumer markets.

Tractebel Energy Marketing Incorporated had agreed to a 20-year agreement with AEP to purchase the output from the Plaquemine plant. Tractebel Energy is the U.S trading and marketing unit of Tractebel SA (Brussels, Belgium), the company is Belgium's top utility holding company. It also owns natural gas transmission, is involved in energy trading and marketing.