Golf Course Adjacent to Power Plant Site
Moundsville Power Natural Gas Plant Still Set for 2018 Online Date in Marshall County
From an Article by Casey Junkins, Wheeling Intelligencer, June 3, 2016
Moundsville, WV — In less than two years, 549 megawatts of natural gas-fired electricity are scheduled to come online at the planned $615 million Moundsville Power plant.
In early 2015, plant developer Andrew Dorn said his company hoped to start building the facility at the site along W.Va. 2, just north of the Moundsville Country Club, before the end of this year. To this point, however, the project site appears very much as it did in June 2014.
Dorn could not be reached for additional comment for this story, but said last year the plant needed to be operational by June 1, 2018. Moundsville Power spokesman Curtis Wilkerson said the delays are the result of objections to the West Virginia Air Quality Board regarding the facility’s air permit. The air board’s website shows the appeal as pending. “These delays are directly a result of the Ohio Valley Jobs Alliance,” Wilkerson said of the group that formed to support coal-fired electricity.
“Natural gas-fired plants like the proposed Moundsville facility may cause coal-fired plants to close,” alliance spokesman Jim Thomas said. “Coal made the state of West Virginia.”
Still, Marshall County Commissioner Bob Miller said he believes the plant remains on schedule. “As far as we know, everything seems to be moving forward with it,” Miller said. “We keep hearing that they are going to break ground late this year or early next year.”
The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects 2016 to be the first year natural gas generates more electricity than coal. As plants that burn coal continue closing across America, the administration believes 18,700 megawatts of new natural gas generation will enter service before the end of 2018, including that from the Marshall County site.
The plant is slated for construction on about 37.5 acres of the “Hanlin-Allied-Olin” area, which is considered an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site. The former Allied Corp. operated the site for chemical production from 1953 to 1980.
According to Dorn, the company plans to meet the $615 million price tag with private financing. He said his plant would be a “combined-cycle” facility that would use natural gas to propel one of its turbines, while using the exhaust heat from this process to drive an additional steam turbine.
Dorn said the facility will use about 100 million cubic feet of natural gas – roughly the production of two or three successful horizontal wells – daily to produce its electricity. The company’s website states it plans to use existing American Electric Power transmission lines to place its wattage on the grid.
In 2014, former Marshall County commissioners Don Mason and Brian Schambach outvoted Miller, 2-1, to approve a payment in lieu of tax, or PILOT, plan to facilitate the power plant’s construction. Under the PILOT, the county will take official ownership of the natural gas power plant upon its completion for the sum of $1, while the firm will lease the facility from the county.
Instead of receiving regular property taxes, commissioners will receive about $31 million worth of lease payments over 30 years via the PILOT plan.
Two years later, Miller said he stands behind his vote against the PILOT agreement, even though Dorn has said the project will create 400 construction jobs and 30 full-time jobs. “Those will be 30 jobs we don’t have, plus the mineral owners will get royalties for their gas being used in the plant. I just don’t think the government should be in the business of owning power plants,” Miller said.
Miller said AEP, which closed the nearby coal-fired Kammer Plant last year, is not getting a similar deal on its property taxes. “I just find that totally unfair. They are getting a special tax deal that AEP is not getting,” Miller said.
Miller also said the transition from generating electricity with coal to natural gas puts thousands of mining and related jobs at risk. “Getting some new jobs is great, but what about the jobs that are already here?” Miller said.
Dorn has previously emphasized that many of the coal generators were already slated for retirement, so his company is merely using abundant Marcellus and Utica shale natural gas to fill the resulting void.
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See also the EIA update on natural gas fired power plants under development.
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EIA: Many natural gas-fired power plants under construction are near major shale plays
From an Article in Oil & Gas News, May 19, 2016
Natural gas-fired power generation increased 19% in 2015, because of low natural gas prices, increased gas-fired generation capacity, and coal power plant retirements. EIA’s May 2016 Short-Term Energy Outlook forecasts that this year, natural gas-fired generation will exceed coal generation in the United States on an annual basis.
Growth in natural gas-fired generation capacity is expected to continue over the next several years, as 18.7 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity comes online between 2016 and 2018. Many of the new natural gas-fired capacity additions in development are near major shale gas plays. The Mid-Atlantic states and Texas have the most natural gas-fired capacity additions under construction with planned online dates within the next three years (2016–18).
Mid-Atlantic states. Many of the natural gas capacity additions are concentrated around the Marcellus and Utica shale regions, largely located in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. These states have been leading the growth in U.S. natural gas production over the past several years, driven by increasing production in the Marcellus and Utica shales. Natural gas infrastructure has been added in these regions to transport natural gas to population centers along the Atlantic Coast.
Among the states near the Marcellus and Utica shales, Virginia accounts for the largest cumulative additions of gas-fired capacity over the 2016–18 period, with 2.3 GW of gas-fired capacity under construction, followed by Ohio with 1.9 GW, Pennsylvania with 1.8 GW, and Massachusetts with 0.7 GW, according to EIA’s Electric Power Monthly.
Expanding pipeline networks in the Northeast are increasing takeaway capacity from the Marcellus and Utica shales, which will support the growth in natural gas-fired generating capacity. In 2015, 6.0 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of new pipeline takeaway capacity in the Northeast was commissioned to transport natural gas to the east, south, and west of the Marcellus and Utica shales. In 2016, 2.2 Bcf/d of new pipeline capacity currently under construction is scheduled to come online in the Northeast, according to EIA data on natural gas pipeline infrastructure.
Texas. Significant levels of natural gas-fired capacity are under construction in Texas, with 3.2 GW expected to become operational over 2016–18. Texas produces more natural gas than any other state and is home to several major shale plays, including the Eagle Ford and Barnett shales.
Florida has the largest cumulative additions of gas-fired capacity currently under construction, with three plants that have a combined capacity of 3.8 GW expected to come online in 2016–18. Although the state has no shale gas production, the retirement of older, less-efficient coal units and the replacement of some oil-fired capacity have led to the expansion of regional pipeline networks to bring more shale gas to serve gas-fired generation.
The cumulative capacity additions cited above include plants that are under construction. The Mid-Atlantic states and Texas also have the most regulatory permit filings for new gas-fired capacity additions. Their combined received and pending permits amount to a cumulative 12.1 GW over the 2016–18 period. Texas leads the United States in permit filings, with received and pending permits to construct a cumulative 6.6 GW over the 2016–18 period.
Source: http://www.youroilandgasnews.com/eia%3A+many+natural+gas-fired+power+plants+under+construction+are+near+major+shale+plays_132136.html
For more information, please visit : http://www.eia.gov
See also: http://www.FrackCheckWV.net