Southern Power, the subsidiary of Southern Company that acquires, builds, manages and owns generation assets that have been constructed for the wholesale market, today broke ground on an electric generating plant near Grover, in southern Cleveland County, North Carolina. The plant will, in part, provide electric power to the company's wholesale customers through long-term contracts with two North Carolina power companies: North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation (NCEMC) and North Carolina Municipal Power Agency Number 1 (NCMPA1).
The generating plant, owned and operated by Southern Power, will consist of four Siemens F Class gas turbine units and will be able to generate approximately 720 megawatts at the summer peak. The units will be built on a portion of the 275-acre site, leaving the potential for future expansion.
Commercial operation of all four units is expected in early 2012.
"This project will serve the growing electricity needs in this region for many years," said Ronnie Bates, president of Southern Power. "Through our focus on efficient operations, Southern Power has a proven track record of providing reliable, competitively priced energy to our customers throughout the Southeast. We look forward to being an integral part of the community and working with NCEMC and NCMPA1 in helping meet their energy needs in a cost efficient and environmentally responsible manner."
NCEMC is a generation and transmission cooperative that supplies all or part of the energy needs to the majority of the state's electric cooperatives. North Carolina's electric cooperatives provide energy to 2.5 million people in 93 of 100 counties, primarily in rural parts of the state.
NCMPA1 is a joint action agency comprised of 19 municipalities with a total load of approximately 1,200 megawatts. NCMPA1 has a 75 percent ownership interest in the Catawba Nuclear Station #2 and is active in the wholesale power market. NCMPA1 is headquartered in Raleigh, N.C.
Southern Power is among the largest wholesale energy providers in the Southeast, meeting the electricity needs of municipalities, electric cooperatives and investor-owned utilities. The company owns and operates more than 7,500 megawatts with facilities in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina and has an additional 820 megawatts committed to construction in North Carolina and Texas.
With 4.4 million customers and more than 42,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company is the premier energy company serving the Southeast. A leading U.S. producer of electricity, Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states and a growing competitive generation company, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are below the national average. Southern Company is consistently listed among the top U.S. electric service providers in customer satisfaction by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).
