By Stephen Smoot
Ten months ago, the Harrison County Commission came out of an executive session during a regular meeting and approved agreements with companies backing construction of a natural gas fired power plant.
Originally named Wolf Summit by its first backers, the project has retained the name even as others emerged to take over planning and construction.
This proposed plant, with a projected price tag of $616 million in 2015 (almost certainly much more now) and an expected generation of 625 megawatt plant on 120 acres. Plans first emerged in 2015, but lawsuits, COVID, and other issues pushed the project back a decade.
Last January, with a lease and PILOT tax agreement concluded, Harrison County Commission President Susan Thomas shared that she was “thankful we’re finally getting to this point with the power plant” and expressed appreciation to “all involved.”
But wait, there’s more.
Last week, First Energy revealed plans to build a facility with the potential to approximately double the generation of the Wolf Summit project.
West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey came to an event last Thursday at Harrison Power Station. There he joined 50 elected officials to celebrate the announcement of plans to construct a 1,200 megawatt natural gas plant, like Wolf Summit, a combined-cycle facility, that will require over $7.7 billion in investment.
Governor Morrissey touted its expected 3,260 added jobs and $68 million in state and local tax revenues.
First Energy Board Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer Brian X. Tierney explained the plans in terms of a promise “to keep energy costs manageable, to ensure reliability during peak demand, and to support local investment and job creation.”
Wolf Summit has cleared almost every hurdle, but the new Shinnston plant is still at the fore of the process. The company needs to find a site, receive approval from the West Virginia Public Service Commission, and complete a dizzying array of tasks before breaking ground. Likely, Wolf Summit will still be the Mountain State’s first natural gas fired power plant.
Tierney praised Governor Morrisey, stating that his 50 by 50 initiative to ramp up power production to at least 50 gigawatts by 2050 played a role in the decision.
As the nation’s energy demand rises due to power-hungry artificial intelligence development, the Governor established a plan to place West Virginia at the center of Eastern United States energy production. “Governor Morrisey’s leadership in setting a bold course for energy growth is exactly what this moment demands,” he explained.
With such an ambitious goal, West Virginia will need both plants and much more to help the nation to meet expected demand. Additionally, Governor Morrisey has proposed construction of data centers in state to consume the power, adding value to an exported service.
In previous times, such as the late 1800s and early 1900s, West Virginia tended to export raw materials, such as coal, and not derive much benefit from their use in different fields.
Some in other situations have opposed expanding electric production if the power cannot be guaranteed to only go to West Virginians, but power is like any other finished good.
If West Virginia, however, makes more of a product and exports more of it, whether it be steel from Mason County’s Nucor, poultry from Hardy and Pendleton County, or energy from anywhere in West Virginia, this dynamic brings in money to put in West Virginia hands.
Also, as regional states, such as Virginia, New York, and Massachusetts, see their demand spike due to their reluctance to produce more power, the market will expand well into the future.
The facility will include a solar array capable of producing 70 megawatts of “utility scale solar.”
In recent years PJM, the regional purchaser and distributor of electric power, has purchased more from natural gas and solar and less from coal and wind turbines. To hold down power costs, PJM purchases from the least expensive, and more efficient, sources at a given time.
