Ashland plant sold in massive deal

A Hanover County power plant owned by a Florida-based energy company has been sold as part of a $1 billion deal.

The Doswell Energy Center, owned by NextEra Energy, was sold along with three other facilities across the country to New York-based LS power, the company said Thursday.

Located in Ashland, the Doswell facility is an 879-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant capable of producing enough electricity to power 850,000 homes. It has been in operation since 1992. NextEra bought it in 1997.

The plant’s 34 workers will all remain employees of NextEra and will continue to work at the facility, according to company spokesman Steve Stengel. Although NextEra is selling the property, it will continue to operate the plant for LS for the next five years as part of a service contract.

As part of the deal, LS purchased the Doswell facility, along with similar but smaller plants in Blythe, Calif., Eastaboga, Ala., and Gaffney, S.C. The total price tag of the deal was $1.05 billion.

Stengel said NextEra sought out buyers for the properties but would not specify exactly how much the Doswell plant was sold for. The electricity it produces is sold to Dominion Virginia Power, Stengel said.

“This was a situation where, while there were a lot of things that were very attractive about all these assets, if we looked at our overall portfolio, we felt like the assets that were sold in this transaction had a limited strategic fit,” Stengel said.

“It was an opportunity where another owner felt like there was more value for their portfolio than ours.”

NextEra owns and runs natural gas, nuclear, wind and solar power generation facilities in 26 states and Canada.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Citi and Credit Suisse advised NextEra on the deal. The Washington-based law firm of Hogan Lovells served as its legal counsel.