Iberdrola Engineering Selected To Build Combined Cycle Gas Turbine Power Plant In Salem, MA

The 674MW station will provide efficient, low-emission power to New England and help pave the way for more renewable energy installations in the region.

New Gloucester, ME /PRNewswire/ - Iberdrola USA announced today its sister company, Iberdrola Engineering and Construction, has been hired by Footprint Power of Bridgewater, New Jersey to build a combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) electric generating plant in Salem, Massachusetts. Iberdrola Engineering will build the new 674-megawatt facility on a small portion of a 65-acre waterfront site now occupied by the decommissioned coal-and-oil-fired Salem Harbor Station generating plant. Iberdrola Engineering will be responsible for all engineering, construction, commissioning, and site work for the new facility.

Situated about 17 miles northeast of Boston, the Salem Harbor CCGT plant will be able to supply electricity to more than 600,000 homes while lowering regional greenhouse gas emissions. Iberdrola Engineering designed "good neighbor" features into the facility to reduce sound levels and limit its visual impact. The much smaller footprint of the gas plant also will open up a large parcel of waterfront property for future recreation, retail and commercial development. Iberdrola Engineering expects to employ hundreds of workers from local companies during the estimated 30-month construction period.

"With new EPA carbon emission rules on the horizon, this new, quick-start combined-cycle plant will provide much needed low-emission power for New England," said Bob Kump, chief corporate officer of Iberdrola USA. "As we increase the use of renewable energy resources in the region, this plant will also provide critical balancing services to supplement the growing renewable generation fleet.

The Salem Harbor plant will incorporate FlexEfficiency; an innovative, total-plant approach developed by General Electric (GE), a company Iberdrola has worked with on other generation projects in Qatar, Lithuania, Algeria, Kenya and Germany.

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High-resolution renderings of the proposed generating station, designed by COOKFOX Architects, are available for download at the Iberdrola, S.A. website. Click to access.

Iberdrola Engineering, a subsidiary of global energy leader Iberdrola, S.A., specializes in engineering and construction work in the areas of low-emission generation, nuclear power, smart grids and renewable energy. It has facilities in 30 countries and recently has won major engineering and construction contracts in Germany, Canada and Mexico.

Iberdrola USA is the U.S. subsidiary of global energy leader Iberdrola, S.A. with three primary business units in the United States:

• Iberdrola USA Networks, Inc. operates in New York, New Hampshire and Maine, safely delivering natural gas and/or electricity to nearly three million customers through its five operating companies: Central Maine Power, Maine Natural Gas, New Hampshire Gas, New York State Electric & Gas and Rochester Gas and Electric.
• Iberdrola Renewables is leading the transformation to a competitive, clean energy future. With nearly 5,500 MW of owned wind and solar generation operating from coast to coast, Iberdrola Renewables is an energy pioneer with the second-largest renewable fleet in America and part of a global fleet that has the largest renewable asset base of any company in the world.
• Iberdrola Energy Holdings is one of the top independent gas storage operators and gas traders in the country with more than 130 billion cubic feet of gas storage and an energy services trading floor in Houston and Salt Lake City.

The Iberdrola USA companies employ about 5,000 people with operations in 24 states from New England to the West Coast. For more information, please visit our website: www.iberdrolausa.com.

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Robert Kump: http://www.profnetconnect.com/bkump