Energy demand nets two natural gas fired power plant projects in Florida

by Boardroom Brief Staff on February 24, 2012

Work in the energy sector is looking up in eastern Florida, Jessica Porter of Construction Executive writes in the magazine’s January 2012 issue.

Currently, two natural gas processing plants are in the works along Florida’s east coast.

The Cape Canaveral Energy Center (CCEC) in Cocoa Beach is expected to begin operations next June. Site construction is now about 20 percent complete, and design/procurement is 75 percent complete. The facility is 50 percent staffed, with some 400 employees currently working on the site.

Work on the Riviera Beach Energy Center (RBEC) began in December 2011, and its workflow is expected to mirror that of the CCEC.

These large, $1 billion projects replace 40-year-old structures that had to be demolished before construction could begin. Siemens combustion turbines and generators were obtained directly from Siemens in Germany.

Zachry Holdings, Inc. of San Antonio, Texas, is designing and building the 1,250-megawatt plants for Florida Power and Light (FPL). Zachry will build retention ponds, storage tanks and modify the cooling water intake and discharge structures – the only pieces of the old plants that remain – to increase water flow.

Similar power plant work is expected to increase in the future, when new coal emission regulations are issued by the EPA, boosting demand that coal plants be retrofitted to comply with the new requirements. 

According to FPL, the CCEC will generate an additional $12 million in tax revenue in its first full year of operation: $5.3 million for Brevard County schools, $4.8 million for Brevard County, and $1.6 million for other taxing authorities.

Read the entire article, Billion-dollar natural gas processing plants take shape in Florida, by Jessica Porter, in the January 2012 issue of Construction Executive magazine.