SPSA Votes to Sell Portsmouth Energy Plant

Date: September 10, 2009

Source: News Room

The Southeastern Public Service Authority's (SPSA) board of directors voted unanimously last week to sell its waste-to-energy plant in Portsmouth to Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. for $150 million. Wheelabrator, which is a division of Waste Management, beat a competing offer by Covanta Energy. The sale would go a long way to paying down SPSA's $240 million in debt, of which it owes $129 million to the state of Virginia alone. Last month the authority rejected an offer by New York based ReEnergy Holdings to buy SPSA for $205 million. In the meantime, the authority has been forced to raise disposal fees charged to its eight member municipalities to $170 per ton; it is the highest rate in the country. Last week, member community Isle of Wight County voted to seek to remove itself from the organization. They will likely have to buy out of their contract, which like the other member municipalities, expires in 2018.

Sign up to receive our free Weekly News Bulletin