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Its environmentally friendly design earned the new Magnolia power

plant an award from one of the top publications in the utility

industry.

Platt’s Power Magazine chose the $230-million facility as its

Power Plant of the Year in its October issue.

“It was easy to say we’d build it, but hard to do,” Burbank Water

and Power General Manager Ron Davis said. “We’re happy for those

who’ve been around the five years it took to complete.”

A joint effort between Burbank and five other cities, the

310-megawatt, natural gas-fired Magnolia plant went commercially

online Sept. 23, more than three months after its formal dedication.

“It’s going full load and cranking out the megawatts,” said Fred

Fletcher, assistant general manager for Burbank Water and Power.

“It’s much quieter. You can’t even detect it.”

Being given the award from the 123-year-old publication is the

equivalent to a car manufacturer being given Car of the Year, Davis

said.

Power Magazine is given a lot of respect in the utility industry,

said Ned Bassin, power management administrator with Glendale Water

and Power.

“I’m pleased they recognized the value of the project for

municipal utilities,” Bassin said. “It is environmentally friendly

and highly efficient.”

Glendale, Anaheim, Pasadena, Cerritos and Colton joined Burbank to

construct the plant.

The award will be given to the department at a ceremony in early

December at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood.

The state-of-the-art facility, with its blue, soaring 150-foot

exhaust stack, employs a combined cycle technology in which heat

produced by one turbine is used to power a second generator,

increasing the plant’s efficiency.

The plant of the year award is given to the power plant that had

gone online during the year that is technically, technologically or

environmentally a pacesetter and can be seen as an example for what

other power agencies can do, Power Magazine Editor in Chief Robert

Peltier said.

Power plants are considered for the award through a nomination

process or through an editor at the magazine knowing about certain

projects, such as was the case with Burbank, Peltier said.

What stood out for him with the Magnolia plant was that it was in

an urban area close to its users and employs no potable water in its

operation, Peltier said.

“It has a far-sighted view of the environment by using treated

wastewater for the plant’s water needs,” Peltier said. “It doesn’t

put a stress on the water infrastructure. That’s an advantage in that

it’s water that otherwise would be disposed of being used to make

power.”

Having Burbank join the other cities and the Southern California

Public Power Authority was an innovative way to finance the project,

Peltier said.

“Cities are independent entities and will compete,” Davis said.

“So collaborating together on something that is appropriate and

expensive can be a challenge. [Peltier] saw the worth of that merit.”