COLUMBUS — American Municipal Power-Ohio signed a contract on Jan. 8 naming Bechtel the engineer-procure-construct (EPC) contractor for the $3.25 billion American Municipal Power Generating Station and granted the engineering firm a limited-notice-to-proceed on the project.

In a joint statement between the two companies, the signing of the contract was called a “a multi-billion dollar investment in Southeast Ohio that will bring significant economic development while helping to stabilize electric power prices.”

With corporate headquarters in San Francisco, Calif. and offices throughout the world, Bechtel is described as a global leader in engineering construction and project management. Since its founding in 1898, Bechtel has worked on more than 22,000 projects in 140 countries. Today, Bechtel’s 42,500 employees are teamed with customers, partners, and suppliers on hundreds of projects in nearly 50 countries.

“We are proud to have been selected by AMP-Ohio,” said Lee Lushbaugh, president of Bechtel Fossil Power. “This is an exciting project that will benefit both the local and state economy and AMP-Ohio’s customers.”

As the EPC contractor, Bechtel will manage the primary aspects of the design and construction of the AMPGS project. The contract was awarded following an RFP process and several months of negotiations. Those negotiations yielded a contract that provides incentives to Bechtel to lower AMPGS costs and provide cost escalation protection, AMP-Ohio CEO Marc Gerken said.

Gerken estimates 1,600 construction workers will be involved during the estimate four and one-half year construction time frame. Once on-line, he said, the facility will employ 165 full-time operators. The joint statement described “conservative” estimates predicting the $3.25 billion facility will contribute more than $20 million to the local economy on an annual basis.

“AMP-Ohio is understandably proud of the AMPGS project,” Gerken said. “This project is part of a strategic generation asset development effort in response to changes to the wholesale electric market – a market that has become extremely volatile and increasingly dysfunctional. Our asset development effort includes a diversified mix of new generation sources including hydroelectric and other renewable resources along with fossil fuel projects. It is being designed from the ground up to maximize efficiency, reduce emissions and plan for future carbon capture. This will be a state-of-the-art facility and model for responsible use of our nation’s abundant supply of coal.”

The press release said AMP-Ohio’s studies have shown that replacing power currently generated from older, less controlled, less efficient units with power generated from AMPGS will markedly decrease the emissions “footprint” of the energy used by its participating member systems’ customers.

Gerken said the AMPGS facility will utilize Powerspan emission control technology, principally to control sulfur dioxide emissions with co-benefits for the control of mercury and particulate matter. The Powerspan process will be a component of a system of emission control technology at the facility. One of the principal reasons for choosing Powerspan technology, Gerken explained, is the promise it shows for efficiently capturing carbon emissions from the facility – technology that he said doesn’t currently exist for large-scale applications. He said in laboratory tests conducted by the New Hampshire-based company and the U.S. Department of Energy, Powerspan was able to capture 90 percent of carbon emissions. A commercial pilot of the Powerspan carbon capture system is currently underway at the R.E. Burger plant in eastern Ohio.

In addition to participating in the commercial-scale carbon capture pilot, AMP-Ohio is a member of the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership investigating sequestration technologies.

“We’ve done our homework in terms of carbon and have and will continue to align our organization with solid partners,” Gerken said. “We know that this is an important issue for the future of coal-fired generation, and we believe Powerspan’s technology will get us there faster and more cost effectively than any other process. When the use of Powerspan technology was being investigated as an option for future carbon capture, I was asked if I was comfortable being an early adopter of a new technology. My response was that I would rather be among the first to install a new state-of-the-art technology than the last to install an outdated technology.”

In October 2008, a participants committee was formed comprised of representatives from the 81 participating communities from Ohio, Michigan, Virginia and West Virginia. The 18-member committee will be responsible for decisions regarding financing, construction and operation of the facility. The committee is chaired by Ivan Henderson, commissioner of Cleveland Public Power and Joe King, assistant city manager for utilities for the City of Danville, Va. who serves as vice chair.