Carolina Power and Light’s Rowan combustion turbine plant is ready and awaiting the command.

Start those air conditioners.

The three huge gas-powered units will come alive when air conditioners struggle through summer’s sizzling temperatures.

Progress Energy, the parent company of Carolina Power and Light, put two plants in service today.

In addition to the Rowan plant off U.S. 70, a second plant in Richmond County has been officially declared available for service.

The three combustion turbines in Rowan have total generating capability of more than 450megawatts. One megawatt equals 1,000 kilowatts.

The Richmond plant has four combustion turbines capable of producing 600 megawatts.

In a press release, Progress Energy pointed out that expansion of the Richmond plant near Hamlet is already under way and expansion of Rowan is set for 2003 and 2004.

As peaking plants, both facilities will be used primarily during temperature extremes, hot or cold, in meeting heightened demand for electricity.

Officials have previously said the additional Rowan units will be combined-cycle blocks. That process uses a recycling system to capture the heat from the combustion turbines, then uses that heat to generate steam to turn a separate turbine generator.

The process can get about 50 percent more electricity from the same amount of fuel.

County officials said previously that once the combined cycle units are added, the total investment in Rowan will be about $400 million.

CP&L is negotiating with the city of Salisbury to get a large water pipeline to the site.

The combined-cycle operation requires millions of gallons of water daily when in operation.

Progress Energy points out that the two new plants are a part of a significant investment the company and its subsidiaries, CP&L and Florida Power, are making in electric generation and transmission facilities.

During the past five years, Progress Energy and its companies have added more than 3,900 megawatts of generation in the Carolinas, Florida and Georgia. More plants are planned throughout the region.

Progress Energy, based in Raleigh, is one of the top 10 generators of electricity in the country, with more than 20,000 megawatts of capacity and $7 billion in annual revenues.

Contact Jessie Burchette at 704-797-4254 or jburchette@salisburypost.com .