New Gas-Fired Power Plant
Marshall County plans for natural gas combined cycle power plant
Based on an Article from the Staff, State Journal, April 24, 2014
Members of the Marshall County Commission approved a resolution April 22 regarding a tax agreement with Moundsville Power LLC to advance plans for a $615 million natural gas combined cycle power plant.
Moundsville Power LLC is a single purpose development company formed by a group of western New York businessmen.. The group is planning to construct a 549 megawatt natural gas combined cycle power plant on a 37.5 acres south of Moundsville. This site is currently owned by Honeywell International. The location is next to a Williams Energy fractionator and commonly known as the Allied Chemical site.
This $615 million plant is a base load facility generating power 24 hours per day.. The power is expected to be sold into the PJM Interconnection, a wholesale electricity transmission organization. Moundsville Power cited an economic impact study from Tom Witt of Economics LLC in Morgantown that estimates more than 400 construction jobs will be created during the plant’s estimated 30-month construction period.
Moundsville Power Spokesman Andrew W. Dorn Jr. said union craft labor will build the plant and it will be managed under a National Maintenance Agreement.
The project still needs to obtain state and federal approvals to develop and build the plant, but organizers anticipate construction to begin in 2015 and operations to begin by 2018. An application for an air quality permit with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection was filed October 7, 2013 by Moundsville Power LLC, but it has yet to be approved.
According to a December 2012 briefing from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, both Honeywell and Olin Corporation had been performing various cleanup activities at the site under the oversight of the EPA. Those activities included constructing a hazardous waste landfill and installing a soil vapor extraction system. Allied Signal operated the site from 1953 until 1980. The North Plant and the South Plant had “distinctly different chemical processes,” according to the EPA, with vastly different chemicals used at each.
The project is being dubbed the first “downstream” project proposed to utilize natural gas produced in Marshall County and throughout the Upper Ohio Valley. Don Rigby, executive director of the Regional Economic Development Partnership said his organization had been working with the Moundsville Power development team for more than a year “and will continue to provide assistance to help them as they work through the project’s development.
The PILOT or Payment in Lieu of Tax Agreement. The PILOT Agreement sets a fixed amount of property taxes to be paid on the project for 30 years and allows developers to seek financing with a predetermined property tax liability. The $4.2 million in PILOT payments will stay the same under the agreement, even if future levy rates are reduced. The agreement still requires approval from the Marshall County Board of Education. PILOT payments generated by the project would be treated the same as property tax payments and would be distributed to both Marshall County Schools and the commission.
The Marshall County Commission also must consider a resolution for a lease for the project, to work in conjunction with the PILOT agreement. KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., based in Cleveland, will act as the exclusive project finance advisor.
Moundsville Power will contract with a consortium made up of CH2M Hill and General Electric. CH2M is expected to build the plant and provide construction and operating guarantees and GE is expected to provide the natural gas turbines and power island equipment as well as a long-term contractual services agreement to ensure the efficient operation of the power project.
The plant plans to use GE 7.04 gas turbines in a two-by-one-configuration, according to Moundsville Power, explaining that the heat and rotational energy produced by the combustion of natural gas in a gas turbine will produce electricity. In turn, the exhaust heat from that process will be used to produce steam which then will drive a steam turbine to produce additional electricity without the use of additional natural gas, making the plant more fuel-efficient.
Point Your RSS Reader to FrackCheckWV.net/feed/
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
http://www.northcentralpa.com/feeditem/2014-05-15_groundbreaking-829-mw-natural-gas-fueled-power-plant-bradford-county
Groundbreaking For 829-MW Natural Gas Fueled Power Plant In Bradford County
Panda Power Funds was joined Thursday by Gov. Tom Corbett and officials from across the Keystone State to break ground on the company’s 829-megawatt combined-cycle “Liberty” generating station located in Bradford County. The Liberty project is the first power plant deliberately sited in the heart of the Marcellus Shale to take advantage of low natural gas prices and transportation costs. Panda expects commercial operations to begin by early 2016.At the groundbreaking, Gov. Corbett announced, according to a third-party economic analysis, the Panda Liberty power plant will contribute an estimated $5.97 billion to the area’s economy during construction and the facility’s first 10 years of operation.“By growing Pennsylvania’s world-class energy industry in a safe and responsible way, we are building a stronger Pennsylvania,” said Gov. Corbett. “As our economy continues to grow, companies like Panda Power Funds are investing in our commonwealth and are creating hundreds of family-sustaining jobs.”“We are investing hundreds of millions of dollars here precisely because Governor Corbett and other Commonwealth officials have been far sighted in developing Pennsylvania’s abundant natural resources,” added Todd W. Carter, president and senior partner of Panda Power Funds. “Because of their vision, Pennsylvania is leading the nation toward economic prosperity and energy independence.”The Liberty facility will be one of the cleanest natural gas-fueled power plants in the nation, utilizing state-of-the-art emissions-control technology. The plant will be powered by Siemens H-class gas turbines — the world’s first generation technology to achieve operating efficiencies of 60 percent — making the facility one of the most fuel-efficient natural gas power plants in the United States. In addition, unlike approximately 95 percent of the nation’s generating facilities, the plant will be cooled with air rather than water. As a result, the Liberty plant will not draw water from, or discharge water into, the Susquehanna River — eliminating potential impacts to species in the Susquehanna watershed.Approximately 500 jobs will be created to construct the Liberty power plant at peak construction. During operations, the generating station will create an estimated 27 skilled jobs to operate the facility and 45 indirect jobs within the community to support the plant.The Panda Liberty project has been strategically sited in the PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest competitive wholesale electricity market, which serves 60 million people in all or parts of 13 states. The Interconnection is in need of new generating capacity as approximately 20,000 megawatts of coal-fired power generation is expected to retire by 2016. PJM also has an aging generating fleet, in need of replacement, with 70,000 megawatts of generation possessing an average age of 56 years.Gemma Power Systems LLC, through a joint venture with The Lane Construction Corporation, is the engineering, procurement and construction contractor, and Siemens Energy Inc. will provide the power island package including the natural gas turbines, steam turbines, generators and waste heat recovery boilers. Gemma-Lane will be responsible for installing the power island equipment and for the engineering, procurement and installation of the balance of the plant, and the commissioning of the facility. The generating station will be located in Asylum Township in Bradford County, approximately 140 miles northwest of Philadelphia. When completed, the generating station will be able to supply the power needs of up to 1 million homes in Pennsylvania.