PSEG Power to Expand Bergen, Burlington Projects
PSEG Power also announced plans to install four, new natural gas-fired combustion turbines at its Burlington generating station, adding 186 MW of electric generating capacity in time to meet peak demands this summer. Total project cost is $95 million. Burlington generating station is located in Burlington City, NJ.
PSEG Power was established last summer as a result of electric industry restructuring in New Jersey. It starts operation as one of the world's largest independent power producers with about 10,200 MW of generating assets being transferred from Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G), New Jersey's largest and oldest electric and gas utility. The Bergen and Burlington projects, in addition to previously announced acquisitions of about 900 MW of fossil and nuclear capacity, will increase generating capacity to about 12,000 MW. PSEG Power and PSE&G are subsidiaries of Public Service Enterprise Group, a diversified energy holding company based in Newark, NJ.
"The projects we're announcing today are in accord with a growth strategy designed to increase our generation portfolio 3,000 to 5,000 MW—either through acquisition or development—over the next five years," said Frank Cassidy, PSEG Power president and chief operating officer. "Our goal is to be a major player in electric generation, wholesale energy sales, and energy trading in a region that extends as far north as Maine, as far south as the Carolinas, and as far west as Ohio."
Cassidy said the Bergen 2 project complete the company's original two-phase plan to transform Bergen generating station into a state-of-the- art facility well situated to compete in the PJM (Pennsylvania-New Jersey- Maryland Interconnection) market area. "Bergen 2 will add 500 MW of the cleanest, most efficient, most advanced electric generation technology available to our portfolio," he said. "It's a brownfield project that makes intelligent and efficient use of resources, maximizes use of existing infrastructure, and it will allow PSEG Power to build on the success our company has had in constructing and operating combined-cycle generating units."
Like Bergen 1, the Bergen 2 plant employs some of the same technology and environmental innovations that have contributed to the success of Bergen 1. For example, he said, Bergen 1 will use combustion turbines to generate electricity in conjunction with heat recovery steam generators and a steam turbine that make additional electricity from waste heat. Also, Cassidy said, Bergen 2 will use treated wastewater from a Bergen County Utilities Authority sewage treatment plant as cooling water make-up, effectively recycling a waste product and eliminating the need for using any water from the Hackensack River or discharging any effluent into the river.
Cassidy said the new combustion turbines at Burlington include advanced pollution controls, such as water injection to minimize NOx emissions. PSEG Power and General Electric, the turbine vendor, will manage installation of the units, two of which are scheduled for operation in June and the remaining two in July.
Edited by April C. Murelio
editor@poweronline.com