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It's more power for the people, as last month Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) announced the largest construction project in the region, a 520-- megawatt, gas-fired power plant in Warren County.
At a cost of $280 million, the Warren Electric Generating Facility will far outpace any other private sector construction project except the First Urban Fiber paper recycling plant in Hagerstown. That project cost about $250 million, but has been idled for four years because of depressed paper prices.
Silver Spring, Md.-based CPV will sell electrons to power marketers, which in turn will sell them to utilities who need capacity or to individuals through existing distribution lines. Under federal law, CPV can sell electrons only in the wholesale market, not directly to end-use customers, and most sales are into spot markets, not under long-term contracts.
Competitive Power Ventures is a two-year-old power generation development company financed by the investment firm of Warburg Pincus and individual investors (see sidebar on page 20).
It will be the third large power plant in the region, the other being Allegheny Energy Supply's 116 megawatt, coal-fired plant along the Potomac River in Williamsport, and an 88 megawatt, peak power plant currently under construction in Franklin County (see sidebar on page 20).
CPV's Warren County plant will be built on 35 acres in the Warren Industrial Park near the DuPont and Toray plants off U.S. 522, north of its intersection with Interstate 66. It is also near Allegheny Energy and Dominion Resources electric transmission lines, a Columbia Gas pipeline, and it has Norfolk Southern rail access which will be used to bring in heavy oil for backup fuel. The plant will employ 25 persons and generate an estimated $1.9 million annually in local taxes.
It will be some time before those taxes are paid, as electric generation is two years off with CPV projecting a start time...