Duke Energy North America is building the plant in Arlington Valley, which is about 30 miles west of Phoenix. The area is home to the Palo Verde Nuclear Plant, a core-switching facility for the Western Power Grid.

The plant is being developed in a joint venture between Duke and Fluor Corp., an engineering project management company. The partnership plans to build three additional power plants during the next year and half throughout the West.

The plant is being built on a 2,800-acre parcel, but only a small fraction of the land, just 40 acres, will be used for the actual plant. Duke chose to build in Arlington because Arizona has increasing power needs and the area is near a natural gas line and consistent source of ground water, says company officials. The plant is expected to be on-line by summer 2002.

One of the stipulations for approval by the Arizona Corporation Commission, which oversees the power industry, is that any power produced from the plant be sold at market price to Arizona utilities.

It appears that Arizona Public Service, which owns Palo Verde and is the major energy provider for much of the state, needs at least 1,500 megawatts of energy above what the company's facilities can product during the summer months.

A number of power plants are under development in the Arlington area besides Duke's plant. APS is building a 2,100-megawatt facility in the area, which is expected to be completed by next summer, and California-based Sempra Energy Resources is building a 1,000-megawatt, natural gas-fired generator that will be producing energy by 2003.