Chevron, Kennan build Army utility plant

FREDERICK, Md., Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Chevron and Keenan Development will build and operate a utility plant at the National Interagency Biodefense Campus to be established at Fort Detrick, Md.

The $100 million plant will provide secure energy to the campus that is being built at the Army's base in Frederick, Md. The project is the largest of federal projects undertaken by Chevron Energy Solutions, a Chevron subsidiary.

The plant will be the first energy project established through the Department of Defense's enhanced-use leasing authority, which allows private companies to develop non-excess military property for mission enhancing and marketable long-term uses. Keenan Development is leasing the project land from Fort Detrick and will own the plant. Chevron Energy Solutions is designing and building the plant and will operate it.

Scheduled to be completed by early 2008, the facility is expected to deliver reliable steam, chilled water and emergency power to the NIBC, and support some high-level bio-safety containment labs, namely the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Integrated Research Facility, the Department of Homeland Security's National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, and Fort Detrick's Steam Sterilization Plant.

"The energy produced by this plant will help ensure continued progress in biomedical research and other critical defense work at Fort Detrick," said Col. Gina Deutsch, garrison commander at Fort Detrick in a news release.