Rathdrum Power Plant Gets New Owner North Carolina Firm Now In Charge Of Developing Gas-Fired Project

A North Carolina-based power generating company has bought out its partner in developing a Rathdrum gas-fired power plant.

Cogentrix, a large, fast-growing power producer, bought out Btu Energy Inc. of Bellevue, Wash., the company that had begun the project on the Rathdrum Prairie. Btu sought a financial partner for the project in May, and Cogentrix stepped in.

Cogentrix will begin selling the plant’s estimated 240 megawatts of power to utilities and large power customers like aluminum companies, said Kurt Humphrey, vice president of development for Cogentrix’s office in Portland.

Once more than half the plant’s generating capacity is under contract, construction on the $130 million to $140 million plant will begin. The company intends to have the plant producing power by early 1998.

The city of Rathdrum, which would benefit from the taxes the plant would produce, approved the site plan Tuesday evening.

Earlier drafts of the site plan gave the Btu/ Cogentrix partnership the option to purchase 425 acres of land around the site, which is at the intersection of Greens Ferry Road and Lancaster.

Some residents had feared that the land would be developed further into a business park. But the site plan approved Tuesday allowed for 108 acres of land to be purchased.

Humphrey said the company has no plans to put anything other than the plant on the property.

Concerns over noise from another natural-gas fired plant - this one owned by Washington Water Power - also have Rathdrum residents wanting answers about the Cogentrix plant.

Humphrey said his plant will follow WWP’s new noise guidelines. Those guidelines were adopted when WWP added some new equipment to its Rathdrum plant to make it quieter after neighbors complained they could hear the whining turbines.

To establish a bridge between the company and Rathdrum residents, Humphrey wants to establish a citizen advisory council next month.

“There’s a lot of information that can spread about the project, and a lot of it can be wrong,” said Jef Freeman, a Cogentrix spokesman from Charlotte, N.C.

Though the company has all its environmental and city permitting in place to build the plant, Freeman said Cogentrix wants to hear concerns from Rathdrum residents before moving ahead.

From an economic development standpoint, the plant would be a boon to any city, Cogentrix believes. While generating millions of dollars in property taxes for the city and county, the plant will have little impact on schools and roads.

The plant will recycle much of its water, and discharge only the sewage from its 23 workers, Humphrey said. Sewer lines already extend to the site.

The plant is in an ideal spot for power generation because it lies at the intersection of power transmission lines and a natural gas pipeline coming from Canada.

Cogentrix views the Pacific Northwest as a growth market. With the Bonneville Power Administration fighting to keep customers, it’s a competitive market to enter, Freeman said.

Cogentrix has expanded from building mostly coal-fired plants in the south to natural gas plants. It will soon begin construction on a nearly identical plant in Vancouver, Wash.

, DataTimes