DUNKLIN COUNTY FAVORED SITE FOR NEW POWER PLANT

The preferred site for a new $100 million, gas-fired combined cycle power-generation plant is Dunklin County.

The favored site, said Max Cates of Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., is west of Glennonville on the east side St. Francis River.

But he said other sites are under consideration. They include a location near Essex, between Dexter and Sikeston, and north of the Arkansas state line near Fagus, Mo.

There were a number of factors considered in selecting the sites, said Cates. One key, he said, was that sites be near the intersection of electric power and natural gas lines.

"Through the process of elimination, the current three sites were seen as the best sites," said Cates.

Associated Electric, headquartered at Springfield, Mo., has a power plant in St. Jude's Industrial Park near New Madrid.

Environmental studies are being conducted on all the sites, said Cates.

"Information from the studies will be given to Rural Utilities Services, the U.S. Department of Agriculture," said Cates. "Hopefully, we'll have our site selection within a month to six weeks."

Meanwhile, Associated and PanEnergy Corp. are moving ahead with plans for the 250-megawatt generation plant.

PanEnergy, which operates the Texas Eastern Pipelines in Southeast Missouri, is headquartered at Houston, and is one of the largest providers of energy and energy services in North America. It operates more than 37,000 miles of natural gas pipeline to primarily Northeast and Midwest markets.

Associated, an electric power wholesaler, provides power to six regional generation and transmission cooperatives. The cooperatives in turn supply power to 40 Missouri and three southeast Iowa distribution cooperatives that serve more than 1.2 million consumers.

The new Southeast Missouri plant will employ between 20 and 25 people.

PanEnergy Corp. and Associated have reached an agreement to develop a partnership to share construction costs. The two companies would jointly market the plant's power.

The power will be put on Associated's transmission system in Southeast Missouri. Associated's transmission system is directly interconnected with 21 Midwest utilities in four of the nation's 10 electric reliability councils.

Natural gas transmission to the new plant will be provided by Texas Eastern Transmission Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pan Energy Corp. Fuel management will be provided by Pan Energy Trading and Market Services LLC., a PanEnergy and Mobile Corp. company.

Officials from both companies expect the plant to be operative in 1999.

Associated will reserve 125 megawatts of the plant's electricity to meet its future capacity needs. The partners plan to sell the other 125 megawatts of power on the open market.

The new plant is needed because Associated has had increases in energy sales and foresees the need for additional power by 1999, the company said. Energy sales have been increasing an average of 3.4 percent annually, while the annual projected increase in energy is 3.2 percent.

When completed, the facility will have a significant economic impact on the area through the property tax base. The power plant will be highly automated and will require only a limited number of employees to operate.

The plant will incorporate an advanced Siemens combustion turbine, one of the most efficient units of its type on the market. The water needed for the power plant will come from on-site wells.

This will be a state-of-the-art facility, said John P. Barnett, a spokesman for PanEnergy.

Emissions, he said, will be low. Natural gas typically is one of the lowest emissions. There is no sulfur emissions when natural gas is used. The new plant would also use low-sulfur fuel oil, if and when it is necessary, as backup to natural gas.