GE Energy has received a contract valued at more than $100 million to perform an extended power uprate of Xcel’s 613 MW Monticello nuclear plant near Minneapolis, boosting the plant’s output to 684 MW. The project is scheduled for completion in the spring of 2011.

Alstom has signed a contract with TransCanada and Halton Hills Power Partners to supply two heat recovery steam generators and one 300 MW steam turbine generator for the Halton Hills Generating Station near Toronto.

In a contract worth $50 million, Wärtsilä will supply 14 20V34SG engines for Tierra Energy’s 115.5 MW Eastshore Energy Center in Hayward, Calif., which will enter service in 2009 and provide power for PG&E.

Subsidiaries of John Wood Group PLC’s Gas Turbine Services Division have been awarded three turnkey contracts, valued at approximately $195 million, by American Electric Power to build and commission three peaking power plant facilities during 2007. WG GTS will serve as contractor for the installation of approximately 680 MW of peaking capacity. One plant, the Harry D. Mattison Power Plant, will be built on a greenfield site in northwest Arkansas and is expected to enter commercial operation by June 2007. This plant will include four GE Frame 7EA gas turbine generators, with a total capacity of 340 MW. In addition, two peaking plants will be built in Oklahoma, at the Riverside Power Plant, near Tulsa, and at the Southwestern Power Plant, near Anadarko. Both plant expansions are expected to begin commercial operation by year-end 2007.

Babcock Power Inc. subsidiary Thermal Engineering International (USA) Inc. will supply condensers for TXU’s 1,720 MW lignite fired Oak Grove power plant near Hearne, Texas. Fluor Corp. will provide engineering, procurement and construction services for the two new units.

Minnesota Power has awarded a contract to design and supply a retrofit Air Quality Control System (AQCS) to Hitachi Power Systems America, Ltd. The system is expected to be installed at the 350 MW Boswell Energy Center-Unit 3. Financial terms were not disclosed. Hitachi will provide a wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) system for sulfur dioxide (SO2) removal and a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system for nitrogen oxides (NOX) removal. The scope includes all interconnecting flue gas ducting and structural support steel. Execution of this project is on a fast-track basis, with the system scheduled to commence operation late in 2009.

Babcock Power’s Vogt Power subsidiary will supply four HRSGs for Navasota Energy Partners’ Colorado Bend plant near Houston and Quail Run plant near Odessa, Texas. They will be installed behind GE 7EA gas turbines, adding 275 MW of output to each plant. The contract is valued at more than $30 million.

CH2M HILL has been selected by Gainesville Regional Utilities to partner with Babcock Power Environmental Inc. for the engineering, procurement and construction of an emissions control system for the Deerhaven Unit 2 Power Plant in Gainesville, Fla. The system includes a selective catalytic reduction system, dry flue gas desulfurization and a fabric filter. Total project cost under contract is nearly $119 million.

Thermal Engineering International, a unit of Babcock Power Inc., will supply Feedwater Heaters and Condensers for the new Iatan Unit 2 coal-fired power plant located Northwest of Kansas City, MO.

OG&E Electric Services, Public Service Company of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority signed an agreement with Red Rock Power Partners (RRPP) to begin the first phase of the $1.8 billion, 950 MW Red Rock power plant. The RRPP joint venture consists of Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio, Texas; Overland Contracting Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Black and Veatch, of Overland Park, Kan.; and The Industrial Co. of Steamboat Springs, Colo. The first phase of the project includes project engineering and planning, development of the firm lump-sum price and finalizing terms and conditions of the engineering, procurement and construction contract.