CPV Wants to Build Large NGCC in Pennsylvania

---

Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Later this year, Competitive Power Ventures Incorporated (CPV) (Braintree, Massachusetts) plans to issue a request for proposal (RFP) for a firm to provide engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for a 980-megawatt (MW), natural gas combined-cycle (NGCC) power plant that it wants to build in southwestern Pennsylvania. Assuming the developer secures all necessary permits, the CPV Fairview Energy Center, with total investment value of about $1 billion, is scheduled to begin construction in 2017, and to be operating in 2019.

CPV plans to build the plant on an 87-acre brownfield site that had been used for petroleum storage. The company, which develops gas and renewable power plants across the U.S., has been reaching out to elected officials, landowners and businesses in Jackson Township, Pennsylvania, for about a year, according to local news media reports. It recently decided to raise its profile a bit, visiting the local newspaper and sponsoring the annual Jackson Heritage Festival last month.

"We are very much about public engagement," said CPV Vice President Michael Resca during a visit to the Johnstown (Pa.) Tribune Democrat. "We have a policy where we will sit down and meet with anybody who is interested in the project--whether they are pro or con. Everybody we have approached has said, 'Oh yeah, we'll make it work.'"

The developer will have to clean the brownfield site before building the power plant. According to local news reports, engineers have combed over the site, performed test drilling, and inspected the water table. CPV's Resca was quoted: "We have proven to ourselves it's a clean site. We'll take what is somewhat of an eyesore to some people and clean it up."

CPV began a more formal public outreach effort last month, and it plans to ramp up outreach efforts in the coming months. The developer estimates construction of the Fairview project will create up to 500 jobs. The plant, with two gas turbines and a steam turbine, is expected to operate at about 60% efficiency, the company predicted.

Locating the proposed power plant in southwestern Pennsylvania means it will be able to access natural gas from the nearby Marcellus Shale, where gas production continues to grow despite low prices. The Marcellus is producing more than 16 billion cubic feet of gas per day (Bcf/d), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) (Washington, D.C.), the statistical and analytic branch of the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) (Washington, D.C.). Most experts predict Marcellus' production will continue to grow in the coming years.

The CPV Fairview plant is one of about a dozen large gas-fired generators that developers are proposing to build in Pennsylvania. The TIV of these proposed projects approaches $10 billion. For more on the pace of gas-fired power development in the Keystone State, see January 5, 2015, article - Pennsylvania Sets Brisk Pace of Development for Natural Gas Power Plants.

Besides the CPV-Fairview project, some of the largest gas-fired power projects under development in Pennsylvania are:

• Lackawanna Energy Center, a $1.25 billion, 1,300-MW project being developed by Invenergy Thermal Development LLC (Chicago, Illinois). That project, to be located in northeastern Pennsylvania, is scheduled to begin turning dirt this month. It is scheduled to be operating before yearend 2017. A unit of Kiewit Corporation (Omaha, Nebraska) is providing EPC services to that project.
• Lebanon Valley Power Station, a $1.1 billion, 950-MW project scheduled to be built in southcentral Pennsylvania. Tenaska Incorporated (Omaha, Nebraska) is developing this project, which is scheduled to begin construction in early 2017 and to be operating by the third quarter of 2019.
• Moxie Freedom Project, a $900 million, 900-MW project slated to be built in the north-central part of Pennsylvania. Moxie Energy LLC (Vienna, Virginia), the developer, has hired Gemma Power Systems LLC (Glastonbury, Connecticut) as the EPC firm for this project. Ground is scheduled to be broken for this project later this year, and an in-service date of April 2019 is planned.
• Hummel Power Station, being developed by Sunbury Generation LLC (Shamokin Dam, Pennsylvania), is an $850 million, 1,000-MW project scheduled to be built in north-central Pennsylvania. Construction of this project is scheduled to begin next month and be complete in mid-2017.
• Moxie Liberty Generation Power Plant, being developed by a unit of Panda Energy International Incorporated (Dallas, Texas), is an 825-MW, $825 million project slated for north-central Pennsylvania. Gemma Power Systems also is providing EPC services to this project, which is under construction. Moxie Liberty is scheduled to be producing electricity by the end of 2016.

"Pennsylvania has seen a lot of gas-fired power development in recent years, a trend driven by the availability of low-cost gas and the need for new generation to replace coal-fired generation that is being closed," noted Britt Burt, Industrial Info's vice president of research for the Global Power Industry. "We don't expect all of these proposed projects to kick off construction according to their original schedule. Some developers may have trouble securing permits or financing. But the Keystone State certainly is an active market for gas-fired power development."

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and ten international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.