The power plant and the adjacent West Springfield Substation were built in 1949 by Western Massachusetts Electric Company, a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities (now Eversource Energy).

In 2002, Con Edison converted the plant into a peaking facility by replacing the original boiler Units 1 and 2 with the current combustion turbines.

In 2008, Con Edison sold CEEMI to North American Energy Alliance, Inc. now known as Essential Power LLC, which is a joint venture owned by AllCapital and IFM.

The two simple-cycle, gas-fired combustion turbine generators (CTGs) having a total nominal capacity of 98 MW were installed and began operating June 5, 2002.

A once-through cooling system utilizing water from the river removed waste heat from Unit 3's condenser.

However, Units 1 and 2 required a small amount of cooling water to remove heat from the lubricating oil system for the turbines.

Units 1 and 2 had an operational constraint of 4800 hours/year based on the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MA DEP) Air Quality Plan Approval.

The MA DEP has recently granted approval to NAEA to operate the units an additional 720 hours per year using distillate fuel oil.

Electricity was supplied to the grid at the adjacent Eversource Energy owned substation located directly behind the plant.