May 15, 2008

Global Monitor (May 2008)

National Grid divested of Ravenswood

London-based National Grid plc will sell Ravenswood Generating Station (Figure 1), a facility in Queens, N.Y., that provides more than 20% of New York City’s overall peak load, to TransCanada Corp. for $2.9 billion this summer. Ravenswood Generating Station was a 2004 POWER Top Plant.

 

 

 

National Grid was obligated to divest itself of the 2,840-MW facility to fulfill a condition of the New York Public Service Commission (NYPSC) order approving the company’s $7.9 billion acquisition of KeySpan LLC, a New York utility, in August 2007. The gross asset value of Ravenswood in KeySpan’s last audited accounts was $1.2 billion at Dec. 31, 2006. The station reported an operating income of $138 million for 2006.

The Ravenswood acquisition by TransCanada is subject to regulatory approvals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the NYPSC, and to clearance under U.S. anti-trust and foreign investment laws. Approvals from these bodies are expected in the next few months.

In addition to Ravenswood’s vital supply, TransCanada will own, or have interests in, over 10,200 MW of power generation in Canada and the U.S. The company’s activities in the U.S. Northeast include hydroelectric generation assets of 567 MW on the Connecticut and Deerfield Rivers in New England, and Ocean State Power, a 560-MW gas-fired combined-cycle power plant in Rhode Island. TransCanada is also currently vested in a proposed 132-MW wind energy project in western Maine.

The Ravenswood Generating Station, which began operating in 1963, is primarily fueled by natural gas. Its multiple units employ steam turbine, combined-cycle, and combustion turbine technology.

GE to sell Baglan Bay plant

GE Energy’s mammoth Baglan Bay gas-fired station, near Port Talbot in South Wales, will also be up for sale by the end of the year (Figure 2).

 

 

GE Energy plans to put an estimated price tag of $986 million on the 500-MW plant so it can concentrate on plans to build and operate proposed nuclear stations in Britain, according to the Western Mail, a Welsh publication. GE has not yet issued a public statement regarding the planned sale.

The Baglan Bay Power Station was recognized as one of POWER’s Top Plants of 2003 for its first launch of GE’s 50-Hz Frame 9H system (see POWER, July/August 2003, p. 45). It was the first gas turbine combined-cycle system capable of breaking the 60% fuel efficiency barrier. Hailed for increasing thermal efficiency by using steam from the bottoming cycle to cool the hot gas path parts without relying on film cooling, the H system recently surpassed 24,000 hours of service.

Since 2003, three 50-Hz systems gas turbines have been installed at the Futtsu Thermal Power Station in Japan. They are scheduled to enter commercial operation this year. GE has also installed its first 60-Hz version of the technology at the $500 million Inland Empire Energy Center in southern California. The two 107H combined-cycle systems are expected to produce a total of 775 MW when the plant comes on-line this summer.

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