LEPA power plant groundbreaking April 17

BATON ROUGE - The Louisiana Energy and Power Authority  will officially break ground for its $120,770,000 new natural gas fired electrical power plant to be built in Morgan City on Thursday, April 17 at 10:30 a.m. at the site behind the Joseph Cefalu Municipal Steam Plant.

A brief ceremony and reception will follow at the Morgan City Auditorium.

The plant will be a 64 megawatt nominal rated natural gas fired combined-cycle gas turbine generating plant. The new plant is the first power plant to be built in the southern region of Louisiana in some 40 years.

“The CCGT technology is superior to conventional fossil fueled generating plants because of its higher efficiency, lower environmental impact, lower capital cost and shorter construction time,” General Manager of LEPA Cordell Grand said. “Because the plant is fuel efficient, it will help stabilize the cost of electrical power for these municipalities by minimizing the impact of fluctuations in natural gas rates.”

Six LEPA member municipalities including Morgan City, Houma, Jonesville, Plaquemine, Rayne and Vidalia have committed to participate in the project by entering into long term power sales agreements for the plant’s power output.

“This project would not have been possible without the cooperation and hard work of these municipalities in jointly funding development of this project since 2010,” Grand said.

LEPA awarded the contract for construction of the plant to Robins and Morton Group of Birmingham, Ala. and completion is scheduled for late 2015.

It will be equipped with an emergency diesel generator to provide for the ability to operate the facility without relying on other generating facilities or external sources of power.