U.S. Natural Gas Plant Construction Starts in September Hit $4B

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Written by Jesse Broehl, Assistant Editor-in-Chief, IIR News Intelligence (Pennsylvania)

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Summary

Eight natural gas-fired power projects were scheduled to break ground across the U.S. in September, representing $4 billion in combined investment and 3,076 MW of capacity.

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Natural Gas Plants Take Second Place Among Fuel Types

Natural gas takes a close second place among power-generation projects in the U.S. that were scheduled to break ground in September. Sixty power-generation projects in the U.S. were scheduled, representing a combined $16.8 billion in total investment value (TIV) and roughly 18,083 MW of capacity across 10 fuel-type categories. The gas projects total 3,076 MW of nameplate capacity.

This story focuses on activity in the natural gas sector. For the big picture looking at all generation types of plants kicking off, see this overview by IIR Energy. See this data compilation for the full list of all projects from all generation sources for September.

Eight Projects Represent More than 3 GW

Eight natural gas-fired power projects were scheduled to break ground across the U.S. in September, representing $4 billion in combined investment and 3,076 MW of capacity -- the second-largest fuel category by TIV in this month's construction pipeline, trailing only solar.

There are two distinct categories of gas projects: a few very large new-build plants bringing entirely new megawatts to the grid, and a cluster of smaller projects providing incremental upgrades to keep existing natural gas plants operating.

Nearly All Spending for New-Build Plants

The first group of new-build projects totaling $3.95 billion represent the vast majority of the spending, with 2,570 MW of new capacity set to be brought online. These projects include Entergy Corporation's $1.2 billion, 760-MW Ridgeland Advanced Power Project in Mississippi and Takanock LLC's $1 billion, 700-MW Baccara Power Station in Waddell, Arizona.

Industrial Info Resources offers more information on these developments in its Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Project Database, where readers can find details--including construction schedules, investment values and necessary equipment--in reports on the Ridgeland and Baccara projects.

See the following chart for a full list of all projects by TIV and megawatt capacity.

Projects Include Purpose-Built Plants

Investor-owned utilities (Entergy, OG&E, Dominion) account for $1.87 billion (46.7%) of gas spending, while nonutilities, independent power producers (IPPs) and merchant power companies (Baccara Power, NRG Energy, Broadwing Energy) account for $1.86 billion (46.4%).

Notably, some of the projects and owners are not the classic merchant IPPs selling commodity power into wholesale markets, but are private equity backed, purpose-built projects tied to specific corporate power off-takers.

The 700-MW Baccara project is intended partly to power a massive data center campus and is backed by $500 million from ArcLight Capital Partners. The infrastructure fund owns an estimated 20 GW of power capacity in the U.S.

The 400-MW Decatur Broadwing Clean Energy Complex has Google as an anchor client. The tech company has a corporate power offtake agreement buying the plant's power output. There's also an arrangement for power offtake with an adjacent agricultural processing facility owned by Archer-Daniels-Midland.

For more, see this accompanying overview news story by IIR Energy and this data compilation for the full list of all projects, all generation sources for September.

Key Takeaways

• Eight natural gas-fired power projects are scheduled to break ground across the U.S. in September.
• The September projects represent $4.0 billion in combined investment and 3,076 MW of capacity.
• Gas is second-largest fuel category by TIV dollar value in this month's construction pipeline, trailing only solar.
• Projects Include purpose built projects tied to corporate power buyers.
• Standalone Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) show a surprisingly strong third place ranking with 11 projects

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About Industrial Info Resources
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news, and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing, and energy-related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified, and verified plant and project opportunities. Across the world, Industrial Info Resources is tracking over 250,000 current and future projects worth $30.2 trillion (USD).