Reliant Energy Begins Commercial Operation of New Power Station in Mississippi

---

Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Reliant Energy Choctaw County, LLC (Houston, Texas), a subsidiary of Reliant Resources Incorporated (NYSE: RRI) (Houston, Texas), began commercial operation of the Choctaw Power Station (Plant 1053243) located in French Camp, Choctaw County, Mississippi.

The plant consists of three 184-megawatt GE Power Systems MS7001FB (Frame 7FB's) combustion turbine generators with three triple-pressure Alstom Power Incorporated reheat cycle heat recovery steam generators (HRSG), each equipped for supplemental duct firing, and one 290-megawatt GE Power Systems D11 reheat condensing steam turbine generator for a total nominal plant capacity of 800 MW. The combustion turbines will be designed to fire natural gas and will be equipped with dry low NOx burners. The HRSG's will be equipped with a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system to control NOx emissions. The plant will operate in a 3-on-1 combined-cycle configuration.

Construction for the project (PEC 03002153) began in October of 2001, and was completed at the end of July 2003. The plant will utilize an air-cooled condenser reducing the overall project water consumption to less than one tenth of the water used for natural gas powered generating facilities using conventional wet-cooling towers.

The owner's engineering contract was awarded to Black & Veatch Corporation headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas. Black & Veatch Corporation is a leading global engineering, construction and consulting company specializing in infrastructure development in the fields of energy, water and information.

The general construction contract was awarded to Zachry Construction Company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. Zachry Construction Company (ZCC) provides a wide array of services including construction, project development, construction management and industrial maintenance to both domestic and international customers.

Reliant Resources (NYSE: RRI), based in Houston, Texas, provides electricity and energy services to wholesale and retail customers in the United States and Europe, marketing those services under the Reliant Energy brand name. The company has nearly 18,000 megawatts of power generation capacity in operation, under construction or advanced development, or under contract in the United States. It will become the second largest unregulated power generator in the United States after completion of its pending merger with Orion Power.