The New York Power Authority has awarded natural gas supply contracts to Colonial Energy, UBS Energy and Virginia Power Energy Marketing. The firms will supply the authority's power plant in Astoria, Queens, ensuring that the facility has natural gas supplies for the duration of the two-year contracts.
The agreements, which are for a total estimated cost of $245 million, stem from the New York Power Authority (NYPA) solicitation for competitive bids for the supply and delivery of natural gas, with the three lowest responsive bids submitted by Colonial, UBS and Virginia Power Energy Marketing (VPEM).
The contracts, which will provide natural gas supplies equaling 35 billion British thermal units per day, will cover approximately half of the gas requirements of the Queens plant, which the Power Authority placed in commercial operation in December 2005.
The new contracts will replace existing supply agreements with VPEM and BP Energy that expire on December 31, 2007.
The three companies will be responsible for transporting the natural gas from the Texas-Louisiana region via an interstate pipeline network that connects with a local pipeline system operated by Con Edison. That system then transports the gas to NYPA’s 500MW plant.
The plant uses a combined-cycle technology for capturing heat normally lost in the production of electricity. Natural gas powers two turbine generators to produce power at the facility. The resulting hot gases are then harnessed to create steam to drive a third turbine generator.