CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The director of the state’s Energy Office says two announcements in the last two weeks about a pair of natural gas plants to be built in West Virginia should not be overlooked.
“We’re seeing opportunities in West Virginia that we’ve never seen,” Office of Energy Director Nick Preservati said on MetroNews “Talkline.” “There’s such a demand for energy and none of the states around us can provide that energy. So now where we are, the country needs West Virginia. They need our energy they need our power.”
Preservati, who also serves as Deputy Secretary of Commerce, said the Morrisey administration is talking to developers who want to be in West Virginia to generate the power that’s needed.
“The governor (Gov. Patrick Morrisey) had a tremendous week, announcing two gas-fired power plants in West Virginia in a week, when we’ve never had a base load generation gas plant in West Virginia and we announced two.”
First Energy announced plans to construct a large plant.
“That includes a transformative proposal—a new 1,200-megawatt natural gas combined cycle power plant to be operational in 2031,” First Energy President and CEO Brian Tierney said in the Nov. 6 announcement.
Then last week at the Governor’s Energy Summit, Kindle Energy, Blackstone, and GE Vernova announced a joint venture for a $1.2 billion gas-fired plant in Harrison County. Gov. Morrisey said the project will deliver 625 megawatts of new generation capacity and 805 construction jobs with no state funding required
Preservati said the projects will provide much for the state.
“Jobs, thousands of construction jobs, it’s going to be property tax revenue for the counties, it’s going to be severance tax revenue for the counties and it’s going to help lower rates,” Preservati said.
The Harrison County plant will be a merchant plant which means it’s not being built by the two large utilities in West Virginia. Preservati said Kindle Energy and Blackstone are two large players in the world power market. Plus, the electricity will be going to other states, Preservati said.
“This electricity is going to be going to Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, so it’s not going to affect our rates,” he said. “We get the benefits of the construction jobs. We get the benefits of using our energy here. It’s not going to be competing with our existing plants and it’s not going to be put on our ratepayers at all.”
Preservati said it’s part of the vision of Morrisey’s 50 by 50 generation plan which aims to increase West Virginia’s current base load generation from 15.9 gigawatts to 50 gigawatts by the year 2050, more than tripling capacity.
The two plants will increase the state’s demand for natural gas, Preservati said.
“One of the biggest issues is that over 90 percent of the natural gas from West Virginia is exported with no benefit. That’s one of our priorities is to increase the state demand for natural gas and these two plants are going to do that tremendously so West Virginians get the benefit of their natural resources,” Preservati said.
The state is looking for more opportunities.
“We have the resources in West Virginia, we don’t need to go looking for places, go to where the resources are,” Preservati said.
West Virginia Chamber of Commerce Brian Dayton said at the Nov. 6 FirstEnergy announcement it’s time to change things when it comes to natural gas in West Virginia.
“Our state is blessed with abundant natural resources, coal, and natural gas that power our nation,” Dayton said. “But the electricity generated from our natural gas has been occurring beyond the borders of West Virginia, and today is the first step in changing that.”