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Sep 06, 2010
Rescuers Comb Kleen Energy Connecticut Plant After Fatal Blast Feb 08, 2010
By Jeran Wittenstein and Christopher Martin
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Rescue crews continued to search for victims of an explosion yesterday that rocked a Middletown, Connecticut, power plant being built by Kleen Energy Systems LP. Five workers were killed and at least 12 wounded, officials said.
All workers known to be at the natural-gas-fired plant are accounted for, said Al Santostefano, a spokesman for the Middletown Fire Department. An investigation into what caused the blast is expected to begin at 7 a.m. local time today.
“We still don’t have a complete list of how many workers were there,” Santostefano said in a telephone interview last night. “There might have been someone that showed up that no one knew was there. That’s why they’re continuing the search.”
Rescue workers are searching under piles of debris -- some as high as 10 feet -- and dogs have been brought in from Massachusetts to assist, Santostefano said.
As many as 200 people may have been working on the project, Middletown Mayor Sebastian Giuliano said in a press conference broadcast on the Hartford Courant’s Web site yesterday.
“Most of the workers at the site aren’t injured,” Giuliano said. “It’s a very large construction site with a lot of things going on.”
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board is sending a seven-person team to probe the activities that led to the explosion, the agency said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
The blast occurred at about 11:30 a.m. local time, while the plant was undergoing a test of a gas line, the mayor said.
The plant, which Giuliano said is about 95 percent completed, is in the southern part of the city, which runs along the Connecticut River, about 16 miles (26 kilometers) south of Hartford.
Nearby homes were damaged by the explosion, which could be felt as many as 20 miles away, CNN reported.
Energy Investors Funds
Kleen Energy Systems is majority-owned by Energy Investors Funds Group. The group has raised more than $4 billion to invest in more than 100 power plants in 30 states, according to the company’s Web site, and has offices in New York, Boston and San Francisco.
“Energy Investors Funds wishes to express our enormous sympathy and concern for the workers at the Kleen Energy plant and their families,” Alex J. Stockham, a company spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement. “We are fully cooperating with authorities and will provide further comment once more information becomes available.”
Purchase Agreement
The plant is a 620-megawatt facility being built to feed electricity to Northeast Utilities’ Connecticut Light & Power under a 15-year power purchase agreement, according to a report by Fitch Ratings on Nov. 20.
Houston-based Spectra Energy Corp.’s Algonquin Gas Transmission Co. is the gas supplier to the plant, Fitch said.
Gordon Holk, the power plant’s general manager, didn’t respond to a voicemail message left by Bloomberg News.
This is the first incident recorded at the Kleen Energy plant, Santostefano said.
“They have an exemplary record,” he said. “There’s been nothing and then this happened.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Jeran Wittenstein at jwittenstei1@bloomberg.net; Christopher Martin in New York at cmartin11@bloomberg.net.
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