Power Magazine has awarded the Birchwood Power Facility a 1997 Powerplant Award, saying the King George County, Va., cogeneration plant is an example of technology and business practices destined to become important to the industry.

The plant is owned by Birchwood Power Partners L.P., a 50-50 partnership between Southern Energy Inc. and Cogentrix Energy Inc. Southern Energy, a unit of Southern Company, operates the facility.

“We’ve felt from the start that Birchwood is the nation’s best example of how to burn coal cleanly to make electricity at an affordable price,” said Marce Fuller, senior vice president of Southern Energy’s domestic operations. “We appreciate this acknowledgment from a leading industry observer.”

Officially opened late last year, the Birchwood plant provides 220 megawatts of dispatchable electric generating capacity to Virginia Power and up to 100,000 pounds of steam per hour to a 38-acre greenhouse complex operated by Greenhost Inc. Built near the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah National Park, Birchwood complies with stringent air and water regulations through the use of a selective catalytic reduction system to capture nitrogen oxide emissions, a dry scrubber to control sulfur dioxide emissions, and a baghouse for particulate removal. The plant also uses low-sulfur coal.

Southern Company (NYSE: SO), the largest producer of electricity in the United States, is the parent firm of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric. Based in Atlanta, Southern Company supplies electricity in eight countries on four continents and provides energy-related marketing, trading and technical services and wireless telecommunications. Southern Company’s common stock is one of the 20 most widely held corporate stocks in America.

Southern Energy Inc. 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.