Southern Energy Inc., a unit of Southern Company, has completed its purchase of electric generating assets in New England from subsidiaries of Commonwealth Energy System and Eastern Utilities Associates for $537 million.
The agreement to purchase the power plants, with a combined generating capacity of approximately 1,260 megawatts, was announced on May 27, 1998. The output of the plants will be marketed by Southern Company Energy Marketing, Southern Energy’s North American energy trading and marketing unit.
“These assets give Southern Energy and Southern Company Energy Marketing a strategic presence in the growing power markets of New England,” said Southern Energy President Tom Boren. “We look forward to enhancing the ability of these plants to produce competitively priced electricity while improving their environmental performance.”
Southern Energy purchased Canal Unit 1 and a half-interest in Canal Unit 2 in Sandwich, Mass., five diesel generators in Oak Bluffs and Tisbury, Mass., the Kendall Station and Kendall Jets in Cambridge, Mass., and a 1.4 percent interest in Wyman Unit 4 in Yarmouth, Maine, from Commonwealth Energy. Southern Energy purchased the other half-interest in Canal Unit 2 from Eastern Utilities.
Southern Energy develops, builds, owns and operates power production and delivery facilities and provides a broad range of services to utilities and industrial companies around the world. Southern Energy provides electricity in 10 countries on four continents.
Southern Company Energy Marketing, a joint venture of Southern Company and Vastar Resources, provides energy marketing and financial services to wholesale and large retail customers in North America. Southern Company Energy Marketing is the second-largest marketer of electricity and one of the 10 largest marketers of natural gas in the United States.
Southern Company (NYSE: SO), the largest producer of electricity in the United States, is also the parent firm of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric.