MAIDSVILLE, W.Va. — As part of the FirstEnergy 10-year Integrated Resource Plan, the permitting process has begun to build a new 1,200-megawatt natural gas combined cycle power plant to be operational in 2031.
FirstEnergy Vice President Chris Beam said the utility reviewed a total of 28 sites before deciding to locate the facility on the grounds of the existing coal-fired Fort Martin Power Station in northern Monongalia County.
“You’re looking at gas supply, you’re looking at how close you are to the transmission system, water supply—all those things, and this site came to the top very quickly,” Beam said Wednesday on MetroNews “Talkline.” “Because all of those things exist at that site, it keeps the cost down for our customer.”
Beam said combined cycle technology is the most efficient and up-to-date method to generate electricity today. The gas-fired plant will employ up to 30 when in operation compared to about 100 at the existing coal-fired plant. Broadly, data from FirstEnergy said the gas-fired plant will support 2,200 direct and indirect jobs and generate more than $85 million in state and local tax revenue. Construction of the facility will be completed with union labor forces.
“Two gas turbines, and we’ll use the exhaust gas off of that to heat water to make steam, and we’ll run a steam turbine off of that,” Beam said. “So, a two-on-one configuration combined cycle plant.”
Beam said they are receiving requests for future generation that exceed the current generation capacity at the site. The unnamed companies’ project needs to drastically increase beginning in 2028.
“I’m not allowed to disclose who they are, of course,” Beam said. “But these requests are large, 600 megawatts to 1,000 megawatts, and we’re building one 1,200-megawatt facility, so one customer could really consume this entire facility.”
Larger requests are handled in a different fashion than a typical rate increase request. In the large cases, the company negotiates a contract with the company, and that document then must be approved by the Public Service Commission. In larger cases the new customer would pay the cost for the generation capacity.
“That’s done in a special contract, and that has to go to the Public Service Commission for approval,” Beam said. “In that process we prove out in the math how that works: you are protecting your existing customer base for the 1,000 megawatts, and the 200 megawatts is available for the general customer base.”
The need for additional electricity is not a problem unique to West Virginia– it’s a worldwide problem. That global demand has the supply chains extending schedules and forcing utility companies to allocate money for equipment on a much quicker timetable than in the past.
“If you had asked me that question five years ago, I would have said we could build this plant in three years and we would be good to go,” Beam said. “It now takes five years. Not build it but to get all the equipment so you can build it, so you have to start planning much earlier in the process.”
The company is now working on the estimated 300 federal, state, and local permits that are required to get the project underway.