Longview Power Plant Up and Running
$2B facility producing 700 megawatts a day
Morgantown Dominion Post
22 December 2011
By Alex Lang
Longview Power Plant, is now just that — a power plant.
General Manager Charlie Huguenard said the plant, north of
Morgantown, reached substantial competition last week, meaning
most of the work is done.
Crews will continue to do minor work, testing and repairs as
needed, Huguenard said. But, the Longview power staff has taken
control of the coal-to-electricity facility.
The facility cost about $2 billion to build.
The plant is generating electricity 24 hours a day, Huguenard
said. Each day, 700 megawatts — enough to power 7 million 100-watt
bulbs — go into the electrical grid. The plant sells its energy to
PJM Interconnection.
There was a delay in reaching substantial competition as the
contractor had to fix a few issues, such as problems with the
boiler, Huguenard said.
As part of the commissioning process, the plant performed
emissions tests, which Huguenard said went smoothly.
To get a permit, the state’s Department of Environmental
Protection gave it the lowest permitted air emissions rating to
date. The plant is the lowest airemissions plant in the state, if
not one of the lowest in the country, Huguenard said.
Not everybody was pleased with the plant, however. Chairman of the
state’s Sierra Club Executive Committee, Jim Sconyers, said the
group battled the plant, but lost.
Despite the company’s environmental claims, Sconyers said people
should be concerned about the emissions from a coal facility.
“You can only be so clean, if you’re burning coal to make
electricity,” Sconyers said. There is a bit of a bright side, he
added.
As part of the settlement with the Sierra Club, the Longview Power
Plant will begin to donate $500,000 to nonprofit organizations to
cover the costs of helping to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions and
to take care of local waterways.
The plant has 96 full-time workers who are based in Morgantown,
Huguenard said. The company estimates the plant will increase
state and local revenues by roughly $7.9 million a year and boost
annual labor income in local counties by $43 million.
Now that the plant has reached substantial completion, Huguenard
said he plans to remain with the project to oversee the transition
from construction to operations.