Duke/Fluor Contract

Duke/Fluor Daniel, a partnership of Duke Energy Corp. and Irvine-based Fluor Corp., won a contract from Duke to design and build a power plant in Maine that will sell power to utilities and other large energy customers.

Terms of the contract weren’t disclosed. The 520-megawatt, natural gas-fueled plant will produce enough power to light 520,000 homes. It is expected to be running by mid-2000, at a total cost of $221 million.

Duke Energy, which owns electric utilities with 2 million customers in North Carolina and South Carolina, is buying and building power plants elsewhere so it can sell electricity in the wholesale market to other utilities and large industrial users. Duke has been looking for opportunities to profit from growing electricity demand in the U.S. Northeast.

In 1989, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Duke formed a partnership with Fluor, an engineering and construction company. The partnership designs and builds power plants around the world for Duke and other power companies.

Fluor shares closed at $36.94, off 94 cents. Duke’s stock was off 81 cents a share to $61.