Chevron Corp. announced Monday that the team of Chevron Energy Solutions and Keenan Development will build and operate a $100 million central utility plant to provide secure energy to the National Interagency Biodefense Campus (NIBC) under construction at the United States Army's Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md.
This is the largest of many federal projects that Chevron Energy Solutions, a Chevron subsidiary, has developed in support of government efforts to improve energy reliability and efficiency at federal facilities nationwide.
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.
When completed in early 2008, the new, energy efficient facility will deliver highly reliable steam, chilled water and conditioned stand-by emergency power to the NIBC. The plant will support some of the highest level bio-safety containment laboratories in the world — the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Integrated Research Facility (NIAID IRF), the Department of Homeland Security's National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC), U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), and Fort Detrick's Steam Sterilization Plant.
The NIBC is a key component of the National Biodefense Strategy, a multi-agency directive established by the U.S. government in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.