tilities don't just help lure other companies' facility investments. They create their own, either directly or via spinoff effects. And the project portfolio goes well beyond power plants.
      In Atlanta, multi-utility holding company Southern Company will be moving into a new corporate headquarters in 2005. Developed by Barry Real Estate Companies, the mid-rise, 260,000-sq.-ft. (24,154-sq.-m.) complex will devote half that space to Southern Co.'s 400 employees. The company,

Build It ... and Things Will Hum       A study released in early 2004 by ICF Consulting forecast huge savings in wholesale power costs if a 26-year, $8-billion transmission infrastructure improvement plan were implemented. In current U.S. dollars, the wholesale cost would drop by $12.5 billion, said the report, and the savings total could reach $64 billion when factoring in reduced outages.       Among the signs that such investment is needed: power deals not fulfilled because of transmission constraints increased by a factor of five between 1998 and 2002, to some 1,500 instances, according to the North American Electric Reliability Council. A U.S. Dept. of Energy grid study from 2002 said that several major power corridors run at full capacity more than 80 percent of the time.       Power plant construction itself is on the upswing, despite a capacity glut that has seen several utilities mothballing plants. In May 2004, McGraw-Hill Construction Dodge reported that power plant projects (along with manufacturing projects) were prime movers in boosting first-quarter 2004 construction starts seven percent ahead of 2003's pace. There are at least 100 new coal-fired plants alone on the drawing boards in the U.S. And there is also renewed interest in nuclear plant development, with studies under way by Exelon, Entergy, TVA and the Province of Ontario.

which has signed a 12-year lease on the new digs, will also achieve the savings generated by a 20-percent reduction in square footage.
      In Raleigh, N.C., Progress Energy has invested $7 million in a $100-million, 19-story office, condo and retail building due to be completed by fall 2004. Plans call for 1,200 Progress employees to occupy 11 floors. Owned by J. P. Morgan Trust Co., it will be leased back to Progress as part of a 30-year agreement. This move also will reduce occupied space by about 20 percent as the company consolidates three separate Raleigh locations.
      Sometimes the utility's own property is the literal ground for the project. In Bellevue, Neb., just south of Omaha, Nebraska Public Power District's dormant Kramer Power Plant is on its way to helping double the size of neighboring Hayworth Park.
      When the plant was retired in 1987, NPPD first looked for a buyer, says NPPD spokesperson Beth Boesch. When that didn't materialize, the plant was put in a shutdown state that still allowed for a potential return to service. "It was our highest-cost generating facility and we didn't need the capacity," says Boesch.
      In 2003, the decision was made to demolish the plant, and an agreement was reached with the City of Bellevue whereby the City would reimburse NPPD for the total contract cost to dismantle the plant, as well as NPPD's costs for providing project management services. At the completion of the project, NPPD will deed the land to the City. In June 2004, the complex's main plant was gently brought to the ground, opening up 101 acres (41 hectares) of beautiful riverfront.
      "Kramer Station operated for more than 40 years producing power that enhanced the quality of life for Nebraskans," said Rick Gardner, NPPD vice president of energy supply, when the plant's smokestacks were felled on Christmas Eve 2003. "It is good to know that the location will enhance the quality of life for Bellevue residents as a future park."

      Power plant construction itself is definitely on the upswing, despite a capacity glut that has seen several utilities

Downtown Raleigh, N.C., boasts a new home, owned by J.P. Morgan Trust Co., for Progress Energy's 1,200 employees.

mothballing plants. In May 2004, McGraw-Hill Construction Dodge reported that power plant projects (along with manufacturing projects) were prime movers in boosting first-quarter 2004 construction starts seven-percent ahead of 2003’s pace. And there are at least 100 new coalfired plants alone on the drawing boards in the U.S., spurred in part by the rise in natural gas prices, and characterized by cleaner-burning gasification technology.
      Looking southward, Gas Natural SDG SA officials announced in June 2004 their intentions to invest some $350 million in Puerto Rican electricity projects, part of a $1.57-billion Americas expansion plan through 2008.
      Even nuclear energy, 25 years after Three Mile Island, is getting a pep talk, with the U.S. Energy Dept. not only offering new incentives for new plants, but looking at constructing its own plant amid an aging national portfolio of 103 nuclear facilities. Leading utilities like Exelon, Entergy and the Tennessee Valley Authority are heading up study groups looking at licensing new plants. To the north, driven in part by the province’s pledge to decommission some of its coal-fired plants, new nuclear capacity has been a key part of plans introduced by both the Ontario energy minister and an Ontario power supply study committee.

      Typified by the vote-down of a $350- million terminal in Maine that would have brought in $8 million in annual tax revenues, liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals are continuing to experience a rocky reception. This comes despite Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan’s call for increased LNG terminal capacity. A safety study by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is expected to be finished by 2005.
      A $250-million project proposed by Weaver’s Cove Energy in Fall River, Mass., is also meeting stiff opposition. A terminal project in Eureka, Calif., was suspended by Calpine Corp. after opposition arose. After backing off an Alabama LNG terminal project, ExxonMobil is moving forward with plans for two $600-million facilities in Texas; so is Freeport LNG, led by ConocoPhillips. ExxonMobil is also considering an offshore terminal south of Louisiana. But in May 2004, ChevronTexaco beat them to the offshore punch, securing EPA approval for Port Pelican, 37 nautical miles (60 km.) south of Louisiana.
      Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports that three different terminal applications from Royal Dutch/Shell and Sempra and from ChevronTexaco are in the works in Mexico, two in Baja California and one in the Gulf city of Altamira. As in the U.S., plans can backfire: a proposed $1.7-billion project in Baja California from Marathon Oil pulled out after the state government expropriated some of the site’s land.