FLP Group, the holding company for Florida Light and Power, has agreed to buy all the non-nuclear generating assets of the Central Maine Power Co. (CMP) for $846 million. The plants include hydro, fossil and wood fired generating units.
The Maine deal is likely to be partly funded by a corporate bond issue. In a separate move, FLP Group and Tractebel have agreed to purchase two 300 MW gas-fired power plants in the Boston and Newark areas from Intercontinental Energy Corp. The value of this deal has not yet been disclosed.
The Maine sale, part of the move towards deregulation in the US state, will bring to an end nearly one hundred years of involvement by CMP in power generation.
The units which are being sold include 373 MW of hydropower capacity on the Kennebec, Androscoggin and Saco rivers, a 594 MW fossil-fuel plant at Yarmouth, two other fossil-fuel fired plants with a total capacity of 187 MW and a 31 MW wood-fired plant in Fort Fairfield.
CMP also owns a share in the output of two nuclear power plants, Millstone III and Vermont Yankee, and 488 MW from non-utility generators and 86 MW from the Hydro-Quebec connection with NEPOOL, which it is offering for sale. There has been insufficient interest, CMP said, to warrant the sale of these assets yet.
Until 1 March 2000, when retail wheeling commences in Maine, CMP will buy all the hydro output from the plants it is selling to FLP and a specified minimum fossil-fuel plant output.