Power Industry Leads West Virginia Project Completions in 2016

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--West Virginia is expected to see the completion of 73 projects worth $1.58 billion in 2016. The Power Industry is the leader in the state, with 10 projects worth $605 million. Following at a not too distant pace is the Metals and Minerals Industry and the Pharmaceutical & Biotech Industry.

Click on image at right to view chart showing 2016 completions in West Virginia by Industry

The largest completed 2016 project in the power industry in terms of spending is the $300 million hydro powerhouse addition at the new Willow Island Lock & Dam Hydro Plant in Belmont, Pleasants County. This 35-megawatt (MW) project is owned by American Municipal Power Partners (Columbus, Ohio), and involved the construction of a powerhouse to hold two 17.5-MW Siemens Kaplan hydro turbine generators and associated facilities for the purpose of generating renewable energy for the grid. The project kicked off in July 2011 and was completed (and the plant becoming fully operational) in March of this year. The facility is on the Ohio River, and power is transmitted through a 1.6-mile-long transmission line. A total of 79 American Municipal Power member utilities will receive power from the plant, according to The State Journal

With the majority of the state's plants relying on coal-fired plants for electricity, the construction (and financial scale) of this hydropower plant perhaps illustrates the overall decline of coal in the country, as environmental standards become more stringent. Although hydroelectric plants have long been used in West Virginia, with the first hydroelectric plants build around 1900, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), only around 2% of the state's generation comes from hydroelectric sources, and less than 5% of electricity comes from renewable sources. West Virginia passed the Alternative and Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard in 2009, which requires investor-owned electric utilities and retail suppliers with more than 30,000 customers to obtain a quarter of their sales from renewable and alternative sources by 2025, the EIA said.

The Metals & Minerals Industry has six project completions worth a cumulative total investment value (TIV) of $273 million. The largest one is the $250 million grassroot Millwood Carbon Alloy Plant in Jackson County. Owned by Carbonyx Incorporated (Plano, Texas), the plant is being built on a 56-acre site and consists of four phases. Phase I Construction kicked off in February of this year and is slated for completion in December.

The Pharma & and Biotech Industry has three projects worth $231 million. At the beginning of the year, the FBI, partnering with the Department of Defense, completed construction of the $142 million phase II of the Clarksburg Biometric Technology Center addition in Harrison country. Having kicked off in 2011, this project consisted of constructing a laboratory office and a central utilities plant totaling 420,000 square feet. FBI spokesman Steve Fischer stated that the center will be used for research & development and testing in biometrics of the benefit of the entire U.S. government.

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