Company reveals plans for natural gas power plant at former Hatfield’s Ferry site
APV Renaissance Partners Opco LLC unveiled plans at a meeting at the Carmichaels fire hall in April 2017 for the construction of a natural gas power plant at the site of the closed Hatfield’s Ferry Power Plant.
John Seker, president of APV Renaissance Partners Opco LLC, right, discusses the company’s plan for a natural gas power plant at the site of the closed Hatfield’s Ferry Power Plant.
FirstEnergy Corp’s Hatfield’s Ferry Power Station on the banks of the Monongahela River
CARMICHAELS – Electric power may again flow from the closed Hatfield’s Ferry Power Plant site in Monongahela Township, produced not by the burning of coal but, this time, by the burning of natural gas.
APV Renaissance Partners Opco LLC of Bernardsville, N.J., revealed plans Wednesday at a meeting at Carmichaels fire hall to construct a 1,000-megawatt, natural gas plant at First Energy Corp.’s Hatfield’s Ferry plant site.
Plans for the project were displayed inside the fire hall and were available to be viewed and discussed with APV employees. Judging by interviews with about a half dozen people, the project seemed to be well received.
“I’d rather see this than see that place sit empty,” Emmett McKenzie, a Cumberland Township resident, said of the project.
“There are going to be people working and that’s always good,” he said. Like others, McKenzie said it would be nice if the coal-fired plant would return and help support local mining jobs, but that doesn’t seem realistic.
“We’re in a transition period,” said McKenzie, who commented natural gas prices have undercut coal and gas burns cleaner. “Gas is taking the place of coal; that’s where it is.”
Earlier Wednesday, First Energy announced it had agreed to sell APV 33 acres at the plant site, including the plant’s two cooling towers, for about $40 million.
First Energy will continue to own the remaining 200 acres on which sits the closed coal-fired generation plant. The company closed the plant in October 2013 citing low electric prices and the costs of complying with environmental regulations.
The company has no plans to reopen the plant, First Energy spokeswoman Stephanie Walton said Wednesday. In November, the company announced it would sell or close its power plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania where the electric market is de-regulated.
APV President John Seker said his company had looked at a number of other sites prior to deciding on Hatfield’s Ferry.
“The great thing about this site is the infrastructure and the location relative to gas. We’re right in the heart of gas country,” he said.
The site, along the banks of Monongahela River, also offers water and a connection to the electric grid, he said. The project will also help clean up an industrial brownfield site.
The plant will cost $600 to $700 million to build and employ about 800 workers at peak construction and about 25 during operations.
It will use the most current technology to reduce emissions, Seker said. “This will be one of the cleanest burning plants in the world,” he said.
The company is currently seeking a state air quality permit and hopes to begin construction next year and be in operation mid-2021.
Another resident at the meeting, Steve DiBiase of Khedive, who had worked 20 years at the former Nemacolin Mine and another 20 as a trucker, said he was in favor of the project because of the jobs it will create and its other economic impacts.
The plant will help support the tax base and benefit local farmers and landowners, who lease their gas rights to the drilling companies, he said. “We’re sitting on a ton of gas, right beneath our feet,” he said.
“Gas is the way to go,” DiBiase said. Building a coal-fired plant nowadays, with the emission standards, “it’s darn near impossible,” he said.
“I think it’s great,” said Frank McLauglin of Masontown. “It will bring jobs to the local area and boost the economy.” McLauglin had worked at Hatfield’s Ferry and was able to transfer to another job within the company when the plant closed.
“It’s better to have this place up and running than to see it rust into the ground,” he said.
Nate Regotti, chief of staff for state Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, also attended the meeting. Snyder had worked with APV for the last few months to help facilitate the sale of the property, he said.
Though it would have been nice to see the coal-fired plant reopen, that doesn’t appear likely, he said. “We have to provide good jobs for the local area,” Regotti said. “We’re hopeful they’ll be good union jobs.”