PROXY STATEMENT
OF WESTMORELAND COAL
Securities and Exchange Commission
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The following is added text of a Web Site at
freedomforshareholders.com.
FREEDOM FOR SHAREHOLDERS
(This appears on the home page)
(a button on this page takes the viewer to the next page which
offers the following choices)
Filings with SEC
Appraisals
Bodington & Company
Concerned Shareholder Letters
Meet Our Team
Other Voices
(the button on Filings with SEC takes the viewer to the recently
filed preliminary proxy statement of the Committee to Enhance
Share Value)
(the remaining pages contain a statement that the page is under
construction)
The new information will be contained in the Concerned Shareholder
Letters section.
Donald B. Ray
139 Mina Drive
Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina 27870
252-537-1604
e-mail: [email protected]
April 15, 1999
Westmoreland Committee to Enhance Shareholder Value
2789-B Hartland Road
Falls Church, Virginia 22043
Gentlemen:
Since many shareholders have no detailed about Westmoreland's
Independent Power Projects (IPPs), I am writing this letter to set
the record straight.
First of all, let me introduce myself and explain why I am
better qualified than anyone with WCC, or WEI for that matter, to
discuss the quality of these plants. I worked for Westmoreland
Energy from 1990 through 1997. During the time these plants were
built, started up and placed in commercial operation I was the
Director of Venture and Asset Management. Simply stated this means
that I was responsible for the final design, construction, start
up and operation of all of WEI's plants. Before I came to WEI, I
worked for Georgia Power for 19 years most of it managing
construction contractors on power plant projects. There is no one
presently with WEI who has an Engineering degree or background, no
one with construction or maintenance experience and no one with
plant operations experience. The president of WEI is an attorney.
The vice president and other managers all have a finance and/or
accounting background.
The Roanoke Valley, (ROVA), Project has two plants. The first
is about 165 megawatts. Unit two is about 46 megawatts. Both are
Cadillacs. From the very beginning of project development these
plants were conceived as Utility grade, base load plants. Unit one
has a General Electric turbine generator and a Riley boiler. Unit
two has a Mitsubishi turbine and also has a Riley boiler. Both are
pulverized coal boilers. Without going into technical detail
suffice it to say that this is the same technology found in almost
all base load utility coal fired plants. Other plant equipment is
of similar quality. Plant systems are redundant to a degree
appropriate to their function and criticality to plant operation.
The control system was upgraded during the design and procurement
stage of the project and is state-of-the-art. It is in fact far
superior to what is found in many Power Company plants.
Construction was also first rate. The design and construct
contractor moved its best project manager from the Hopewell plant
to the Roanoke Valley project. He brought many seasoned and
experienced engineers and construction professionals with him. At
about this same time, at my urging, Matt Sakurada, who was then
President of WEI, convinced our partner in this project that we
should hire a resident inspector for the project. We contracted
with Law Engineering, the leading engineering and testing company
in the country, to furnish an inspector. Law sent us a senior
inspector with 15 years of construction experience and
certifications in almost every field of inspection and
nondestructive testing. His job was not only to make his own
inspections but also to verify that contractors were following the
requirements of their own quality programs. The inspector sent in
reports on a daily basis; we talked daily; and I was personally at
the project about every other week. In addition to this inspector,
we also hired a start up coordinator to make sure all of our plant
equipment was properly commissioned.
Every year the plant budgets include provision for capital
expenditure and many additions, improvements and upgrades have
been made.
These plants operate under contracts to Virginia Power. Due to
the energy price structure of those contracts, the plants are both
fully dispatched. In other words, they are supposed to run almost
all of the time. Anyone concerned with the quality of the plants
can simply look at the plants' availability records. I no longer
have access to those numbers but at the time I left WEI the were
both quite good. They were, in fact, better than we projected in
the original pro forma.
One final comment on ROVA: Please ask whoever is criticizing
the plant to explain why it was selected as POWER magazine's Plant
of the Year for 1997.
Now to the Virginia plants. I would not rate them quite as
high as Roanoke Valley on either design or construction however
that is not necessarily bad. These plants are not base loaded.
Their boilers are stoker fired. This is much older technology than
the boilers at Roanoke Valley but is the same as that used
successfully by Cogentrix at several of its plants. Each plant has
two boilers. This adds a degree of redundancy not seen at most
plants. All three of these plants have Mitsubishi turbines just
like ROVA II. These plants have the same modern control system
found at the ROVA plants and, because they are almost identical,
can support each other with shared spare parts.
I have tried to be brief and non-technical but I am not sure I
succeeded at either. If you have any questions, if I missed or
left out anything you think belongs in this discussion or if
something is not clear, please call me. If you feel it would be
helpful, please post it on your web site.
Sincerely yours,
Donald B. Ray
