Southern Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company that acquires, builds, manages and owns wholesale generation assets, on October 22 announced that it has entered into an acquisition agreement with an affiliate of LS Power to acquire 100 percent ownership interest in West Georgia Generating Company LLC, which has a plant located in Thomaston, Ga.
The Thomaston plant is a peaking facility with four gas-fired combustion turbines with total capacity of approximately 600 megawatts. Capacity from two of the four units is sold through long-term power purchase agreements with the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and the Georgia Energy Cooperative.
In addition to the acquisition of the West Georgia facility, the agreement includes the acquisition by LS Power of a 100 percent ownership interest of Southern Power's DeSoto County Generating Company, LLC which has a plant located in Arcadia, Fla. The DeSoto plant consists of two combustion turbine units with a combined capacity of 320 megawatts.
The closing of the transaction is subject to several conditions including all pending regulatory approvals.
"This acquisition fits well into Southern Company's strategy of continuing to meet energy demand with an increasingly diverse generation mix," said David Ratcliffe, chairman, president and CEO, Southern Company.
"This transaction reinforces Southern Power's disciplined strategy to acquire and/or build generating assets for which the output is significantly covered by long-term bi-lateral contracts in the wholesale market," said Southern Power President Ronnie Bates. "This agreement represents a growth opportunity that is a good fit for Southern Power."
LS Power is a power generation, transmission and investment group with a proven track record of successful development activities, operations management and commercial execution. LS Power has been involved in the development, construction, or operations of over 20,000 MW of power generation throughout the United States.
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).
