US Power Gen seeks buyer for NY Astoria power plants

NEW YORK, July 28 (Reuters) - US Power Generating Co hired
Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) to sell its Astoria Generating
Co unit, which owns about 2,300 megawatts of power generation
in New York City, the company said in a release this week.

The Astoria Generating fleet, which can serve about 20
percent of the electric demand in New York City, consists of
natural gas and oil-fired steam units and combustion turbines,
including the 1,296 MW Astoria Generating Station in Queens and
the 555 MW Gowanus and 297 MW Narrows gas turbines in
Brooklyn.

Financial services company Standard & Poor's earlier this
year noted the Astoria plants require significant environmental
capital spending to comply with New York State and U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency regulations, including the
installation of variable speed circulating water pumps to
address water intake issues.

In the spring, the New York-based US Power Generating hired
JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) to sell its Boston Generating
assets in the Boston area, including nearly 3,000 MW of mostly
natural gas-fired, combined cycle units capable of meeting
about half the demand in the Boston metropolitan area.

S&P last week said Boston Generating has too much debt to
service in the current and prospective market economics and
would likely file for bankruptcy protection in the third
quarter of 2010.

The Boston assets include the 688 MW Fore River and the
1,958 MW Mystic plants in Massachusetts.

Equity investors in US Power Generating include affiliates
of Madison Dearborn Partners LLC, the family of Ray L. Hunt of
Dallas, which controls Hunt Oil Co, and other financial
institutions and company managers, according to the company web
site.

A predecessor of US Power Generating was started in 2003 to
acquire U.S. merchant power projects and other unregulated
power assets.
TIMELINE:
1954 - Con Edison completes 175 MW gas fired Astoria

Unit 2
1962 - Con Ed completes 376 MW oil/gas fired Astoria

Unit ST5
1961 - Con Ed completes 276 MW oil/gas fired Astoria

Unit 4
1958 - Con Ed completes 369 MW oil/gas fired Astoria

Unit 3
1971 - Con Ed completes Gowanus gas/oil turbines
1972 - Con Ed completes Narrows gas/oil turbines
Early 2000s - Con Edison sells generation as part of the

deregulation of the New York State power market.

Orion Energy buys Astoria and the gas turbines.

Reliant Energy buys Orion.
2006 - Reliant sells Astoria and the gas turbines to

Astoria Generating, which becomes part of US

Power Generating
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino)