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Power plant to come down

The obsolete A.W. Higgins plant on Booth Point will be imploded, Progress Energy says.

By TAMARA EL-KHOURY
Published May 4, 2006

[Times photo: Carrie Pratt]

The A. W. Higgins power plant was completed in the early 1950s. At the time, it was described as "one of the most modern plants in the world."

OLDSMAR - After nearly six decades, the obsolete A.W. Higgins power plant will be imploded this summer, Progress Energy representatives told the Oldsmar City Council Tuesday night.

The old plant is on Booth Point at the north end of Tampa Bay and is clearly visible from the Courtney Campbell Parkway. It hasn't been used since 1993 and was officially retired in 1996.

Despite the demolition of the Higgins power plant, there is another, smaller power plant on the property that is being used to generate power as needed. Progress Energy has no plans to get rid of that facility.

The Higgins plant sits on 5 of the site's 142 acres and is scheduled to be demolished by implosion in late June or early July, said Progress Energy spokeswoman Cherie Jacobs. Contracts for the job should be awarded in the next two weeks, she said.

"The plant isn't getting any younger," Jacobs said. "It's a wise decision for us to go ahead and dismantle it now before it becomes dangerous."

The 5 acres will remain part of the industrial site and serve as an environmental buffer zone, Jacobs said. Three employees run the four units that make up the existing power plant on the site, which remains in operation.

Dismantling the building will cost $1.2-million, but the market for scrap metal is at historic highs, Jacobs said. The 64,000-square-foot power plant has 6,000 tons of metal to sell.

Asbestos cleanup is slated to begin soon, Jacobs said, and will go until early June. Other environmental hazards, like old fluorescent light bulbs, also will be taken care of.

The building will be imploded soon after, and the cleanup will last several months. Property restoration will take place in November and December.

From July to October, Jacobs said, she anticipates that 20 people and five semitrailer trucks will work at the site each day.

The plant was completed in the early 1950s at a cost of $20-million. At the beginning of its construction, A.W. Higgins, then the president of Florida Power Corp., the utility that built the plant, described it as "one of the most modern plants in the world."

At the time, 45 to 50 employees ran the plant, Jacobs said. As power plant technology improved, the plant became outdated and inefficient and was shut down.

Oldsmar Mayor Jerry Beverland had two suggestions for the representatives from Progress Energy.

No. 1, annex the site into the city.

No. 2, place some of those 142 acres into the Mobbly Bayou Wilderness Preserve.

Does he think they'll do those things?

"They never have been receptive to it before," Beverland said.

What does Progress Energy have to say about all this?

"Annexation really is not in our immediate plans," Jacobs said.

LOCATION: Booth Point, at the northern end of Tampa Bay.

PROPERTY SIZE: 142 acres.

BUILDING SIZE: 64,000 square feet.

BUILDING HEIGHT: 120 feet.

ENERGY SOURCE: Fuel oil or natural gas.

PRODUCTION: 138 megawatts - enough electricity to power 100,000 homes.

STAFF, HISTORICALLY: 45 to 50.

STAFF, CURRENTLY: 3.

[Last modified May 4, 2006, 00:59:16]