EDMONTON - Edmonton-based Capital Power Corp. has its sights set on more generating plants in the New England region as it digests the three facilities it has just purchased.

“We have dry powder and a target to meet, a target of $1.5 billion in

acquisitions this year,” chief executive Brian Vaasjo said Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Capital announced the $355-million purchase of a 520-megawatt, natural gas-fired plant in Bridgeport, Conn. Last month it paid $315 million for plants in Maine and Rhode Island that have a combined capacity of 549 MW.

So with $670 million spent, Capital has about $800 million more to keep on shopping in its preferred marketplace.

“We thoughtfully put that target together as something we could achieve,” said Vaasjo, who estimates the 1,069 MW of new capacity could eventually grow to 4,000 MW under the firm’s electricity “hub” approach. New England will be its first wholly-owned hub.

“One of the criteria we looked at was how big these hubs could get, what makes sense. And we think we can get to 4,000 MW over time,” he said.

A hub system with several plants allows firms like Capital to engage in more electricity trading.

“That’s the real benefit — you can cover. If you have just one plant it is difficult to enter into a contract where you are going to sell the plant’s capacity going forward for a month,” Vaasjo said.

Production contracts call for the owner to provide power even if there is an unexpected plant failure.

“That’s a very risky position to be in, but with three assets you are able to forward contract significantly more than you could on an individual basis.”

Capital is paying less than half the replacement value for its three New England plants. All are fairly new, built within the last 12 years and with another 30 years of operational life.

And the firm sees good fishing ahead in a region where plant ownership is fragmented.

“There are some large players, but a lot of small players as well, who over the next decade will be selling their assets,” Vaasjo said.

He is also pleased that the economy in New England is performing slightly better than expected, and that there might be more older plants closing due to tougher emission regulations. It has been estimated there could be excess generating capacity in New England for another eight years.

But things have changed since Capital’s forecast prepared on data from September.

“We now feel there will be more retirements, the timing has moved up a bit,” Vaasjo said.

Through its Capital Power Income LP partnership, Capital also manages and partly owns power plants in other groupings, including two in North Carolina, three in the U.S. Northwest and four in California. But these plants aren’t used in power trading the way Capital intends to do in New England with its wholly-owned plants.

One factor in purchasing the Bridgeport facility was that it comes with two Siemens gas turbines, the same design as those used at the partnership’s facility in Colorado.

dcooper@edmontonjournal.com