Entergy Louisiana has secured approval from the Louisiana Public Service Commission for its plan to acquire 361MW power plant, which is planned to be built in Washington Parish.
Image: The planned natural gas-fired power plant will feature two combustion turbines. Photo: Photo by veeterzy on Unsplash.
The firm said that the approval from state regulator is an endorsement of another element of its plan to upgrade its power plants fleet.
Entergy will now purchase the natural gas-fired peaking unit upon completion of construction by a subsidiary of Calpine.
Planned to be constructed west of Bogalusa on the site of a generation project Calpine which was put on permanent hold in 2006, the Washington Parish Energy Center will be purchased for approximately $261m.
The natural gas-fired peaking unit, which will be built upon demolishing the unneeded remnants of the existing project, will feature two combustion turbines.
Entergy said in a statement: “Peaking units run to fill the gap when customer demand for electricity reaches a level above what base-load and other generating units can produce.”
The firm noted that the unit will provide it with the required peaking and reserve generating capacity.
Entergy Louisiana president and CEO Phillip May said: “We view this project as a sound investment to meet our customers’ future power needs in Louisiana.”
Currently, the company depends upon older, less efficient gas-fired plants to help meet peak demand.
However, start-up times make them less effective as peaking resources.
The firm said: “Modern combustion turbines like the two planned at Washington Parish are specifically designed to start and ramp up quickly to meet the energy needs of customers.”
Entergy Louisiana, a subsidiary of Entergy, provides electric service to more than 1 million customers as well as natural gas service to approximately 93,000 customers in the greater Baton Rouge area.
The firm has operations in southern, central and northeastern Louisiana.
Integrated energy company Entergy is engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations.