By Theresa Goffredo

Herald Writer

EVERETT — One of two natural-gas-fired power plants planned along the Snohomish River would be 32 feet taller if approved by the city.

Northwest Power Co. has asked for a variance to make its 248-megawatt plant 96 feet tall, instead of the planned 64 feet, to better accommodate the plant’s heat-recovery steam generator. The company needs a variance because the height limit for buildings in the heavy industrial area along Marine View Drive, where the plant will be constructed, is 80 feet.

The plant will also include a previously approved 150-foot-tall stack.

"We’re in a period of review and moving ahead with our regulatory phases," said Carol Clawson, spokeswoman for Florida Power &Light, or FPL, the primary owner of Northwest Power Co.

The company plans to build the water-cooled, natural-gas combined power plant called Everett Delta I at 121 Marine View Drive, the site of the former Weyerhaeuser pulp mill.

Plans for Delta I, however, have been ongoing for some time, with FPL officials earlier saying they wanted to begin construction in 2000. Though progress has been slow, Clawson said, the project is moving forward.

"We continue to proceed with the necessary permitting and licensing," Clawson said. "The business climate is continually changing, but there’s also a continual need for power."

At this point, city planning director Paul Roberts hasn’t heard any opposition to the plant, and he speculates that’s because people are appreciating the need to generate more options for power to help bring down electricity rates.

"This is something we need, and the cleaner so much the better, and as far as from the fossil fuel standpoint goes, this is as good as it gets," Roberts said. "So I don’t have people banging down the doors saying this plant is too high."

Florida Power has already received the necessary environmental permits to build the Delta I project.

Meanwhile, a nearly identical, second 248-megawatt power plant also has been proposed at the 34-acre mill site, east of the Delta I project.

The New York investment banking firm of Wasserstein Perella Co. Inc. bought the Everett Delta II Power Co. plant through foreclosure in June 2000. That plant already has passed an environmental review and was approved for construction in 1999.

The two plants, though operated by separate companies, will share facilities such as a steam turbine, control room and administrative building.

The two power plants would use what is called combined-cycle combustion turbine technology. With two separate plants, each would have electricity generated first from a gas-powered combustion turbine. Then, the exhaust gases are collected and routed into a steam generator to provide a second cycle of power production.

In addition to sharing equipment, Florida Power and Wasserstein Perella expect to share the natural gas from a pipeline proposed by Williams Gas Co. that would run from Everett to the Soper Hill neighborhood in Lake Stevens.

Williams spokeswoman Beverly Chipman said this week that the pipeline has been approved for construction, though no building has begun while Williams waits for the power plants to go on line.

"We can’t go forward until the (plant) project is approved," Chipman said. "We can’t build a pipeline to nowhere. It needs to be connected to something."

You can call Herald Writer Theresa Goffredo at 425-339-3097

or send e-mail to goffredo@heraldnet.com.

Written comments on Northwest Power Co.’s application to build part of its power plant 32 feet taller can be sent by Monday to the Everett Planning Department, 2930 Wetmore Ave., Suite 8-A, Everett WA 98201.

The city’s hearing examiner has set a public hearing for 11 a.m. April 11 at 2930 Wetmore Ave., Suite 8-C, in Everett.