Groundbreaking took place this week for the $452-million Lodi Energy Cen-ter powerplant project in northern San Joaquin County. The California Energy Commission and Northern California Power Agency teamed up to get the project off the ground; the NCPA will construct, own and operate the plant. The center will be a natural-gas-fired, combined-cycle 255-MW power generation facility. Completion is scheduled for June 2012. A major component of the center will be a new technology: Designed to allow for the steam turbine’s earlier startup in a process that decouples the gas turbine from the heat-recovery steam generator, the technology is intended to reduce startup emissions signficantly.