Southeast U.S. Leads the Nation in Scheduled New Power Generation Unit Commercial Start-Ups for 2003

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). 2002 has been a banner year for the commercial start-up of new power generation. The total megawatts (MW) coming online in 2002 peaked, as a flurry of projects has been developed to meet rising demand. As of December 9, 2002, over 58,000 MW has come online this year.

Industrialinfo.com has identified over 44,000 MW of cancelled new generation, which was originally scheduled to come online in 2003. Despite these cancellations, 2003 is projected to be equally as busy as 2002 for commercial start-ups of new generation. Several projects, which were initially planned for 2002, have been deferred to 2003 or later due to financing difficulties, delays in deregulation, and lower than projected energy consumption levels, to name a few.

Industrialinfo.com's New Build Tracking Database has identified 71,320 MW of new generation units under development scheduled to come online in 2003. We are projecting approximately 70% of that, or close to 50,000 MW to come to fruition.

The Southeast region of the U.S. which includes Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee leads the nation in scheduled unit start-ups for 2003 with 99 units totaling 15,628 MW of capacity. Within this region, most of the new units will come online in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

Click on the image at the right to view a breakdown of scheduled commercial unit start-ups by market region.

The most predominant fuel type for planned generation is, of course, natural gas representing 48,212 MW or 67.6% for 2003. Waste heat driven steam turbines from combined cycle power plants account for 18,795 MW or 26.4% of the planned generation for 2003.

Renewables account for a strong showing in 2003 with 4,081 MW or 5.7% planned. Renewables include hydroelectric, wind, solar, landfill gas, wood, digester gas, waste (solid/sludge), biomass, and geothermal. Wind power projects lead the renewables category with 47 units planned for 2003 totaling 3,755.55 MW. The remaining, less than 1%, will use coal or fuel oil as a primary fuel source.

In comparison, the majority of power generation for 2002 is about 75% natural gas fired (44,000 MW), followed by waste heat from combined cycle plants representing 12,000 MW. Coal had about 1,000 MW come online in 2002.