San Francisco – Calpine Corp.’s convoluted descent into bankruptcy, culminating in a Chapter 11 filing late Tuesday night, began when the future still looked bright for the power merchant.
Emboldened by its rapidly rising profits and stock price in 2001, Calpine launched a debt-laden expansion. The San Jose, Calif.-based company doubled in size, leaving it with 3,300 employees and 92 power plants in 21 states and Canada able to provide electricity to 28 million homes.
In Colorado, Calpine operates the 300-megawatt Blue Spruce Energy Center in Aurora and the 600-megawatt Rocky Mountain Energy Center in Weld County.
But prices for electricity have plummeted as costs for natural gas -which fueled its power plants – increased.The company’s fleet of power plants is operating at only 45 percent of capacity, making it difficult to generate enough money to repay debts listed at $22.5 billion in Calpine’s bankruptcy filing.
