LIVERMORE, CA-Energy producer Calpine Corp. and Bechtel GroupInc. are planning to build a large natural gas plant near here inunincorporated Alameda County. The two Bay Area companies are eyinga 50-acre site on Kelso Road, next to an existing Western AreaPower Administration substation. The new East Altamont EnergyCenter would cost an estimated $550 million and produce 1,100megawatts of electricity – enough to power approximately onemillion homes in the East Bay and San Joaquin County.

Before the facility is approved, it will go through a rigoroustechnical and environmental review process by the California EnergyCommission in Sacramento and in Alameda County. If Calpine obtainsthe licensing through the energy commission on time, it will beginconstruction in June 2002. Company officials anticipate completionin June 2004.

Earlier this year, San Jose-based Calpine Corp. proposed plansto build a smaller facility – one that would produce 600 megawattsof electricity – in the Coyote Valley Research Park on the southernedge of San Jose. But last month, San Jose City Council membersrejected the plan, saying that the project was inappropriate for anarea being filled with light industrial high-tech firms such asCisco Systems, which also opposed the power plant project. CiscoSystems, San Jose's largest employer, is building a 688-acre campusin the Coyote Valley Research Park that will eventually employ20,000 people.