Southern Power expands natural gas portfolio with 720MW facility

Southern Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, recently began commercial operation of Plant Cleveland, a 720 MW natural gas facility located in Cleveland County, N.C. The plant has expanded the company's natural gas portfolio and is the third generating facility that Southern Power owns and operates in North Carolina.

Plant Cleveland represents an investment of about $330 million in the community and is expected to contribute $30 million in new state and local tax revenue over the next 20 years.

The generating plant consists of four Siemens F Class gas turbine units that occupy a portion of a 275-acre site near Kings Mountain, N.C. Plant Cleveland will, in part, provide electric power through long-term contracts with North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation (NCEMC) and North Carolina Municipal Power Agency Number 1 (NCMPA1).

NCEMC is a generation and transmission cooperative that supplies all or part of the energy needs for the majority of the state's electric cooperatives. Electric cooperatives provide energy to 2.5 million people in 93 of North Carolina's 100 counties, primarily in rural parts of the state. 

NCMPA1 is a joint action agency composed of 19 municipalities in western North Carolina, with a total load of approximately 1,100 MWs.

Southern Power is a wholesale energy provider in the Southeast which meets the electricity needs of municipalities, electric cooperatives and investor-owned utilities. The company owns and operates more than 8,600 MWs with facilities in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Texas and New Mexico and has an additional 30 MWs under construction in Nevada. 

Southern Power acquired Plant Rowan, a 925-MW gas facility, in 2006 and in October announced with Turner Renewable Energy, Inc., the acquisition of the 2.5-MW Granville Solar Facility.