ORANGE COUNTY BRIEFLY

Duke/Fluor Daniel, a joint venture of Duke Energy Corp. and Fluor Corp., won the contract to build Columbia Energy Group’s power plant near Philadelphia. Terms weren’t disclosed.

The natural gas-fired Liberty plant in Eddystone, Pa., is expected to begin operating in early 2002. It will produce 530 megawatts of electricity, enough to light more than a half-million homes.

Duke, which is based in Charlotte, N.C., and Fluor, a major engineering and construction company based in Aliso Viejo, formed a partnership in 1989 to design and build power plants around the world.

Columbia Energy, based in Herndon, Va., owns gas utilities in Pennsylvania and four other states, and is building power plants to boost electricity sales.