West Virginia Executive Spring/Summer 2020 | Page 55

and wind facilities around the country that have either already
been developed or are in the process of development. Caithness
is committed to developing power projects that benefit the
environment and the surrounding communities in which its
facilities are located.
“The interesting part is that although West Virginia doesn’t
have any baseload natural gas generation historically, all the
states around us do,” says Wilkerson. “And even though West
Virginia is a major producer of natural gas, the power plants
in Brooke County and Harrison County will be the first ones
to be constructed in the state.”
The ESC Harrison County power plant will access the
region’s natural gas by interconnecting to an existing local
natural gas pipeline. The plant, which will use $111 million
of natural gas annually, will create an economic impact of
$880 million during the plant’s construction, as well as $287
million per year following construction. The plant is expected
to create 400 jobs during construction and 713 direct and indirect
jobs associated with the plant, including maintenance
and supply chains. Of these, 30 will be full-time jobs. When
the plant is in operation, it will provide roughly 425,000
homes with power.
ESC will lead the development of this facility, working with
all stakeholders from the federal and local government and
community members, while Caithness Energy will lead construction
and manage operations within the plant.
The ESC Brooke County power plant is located on a reclaimed
strip mine and will use clean-burning, efficient technology
to source the area’s natural gas, reducing water usage
to less than 3 percent of what other similarly sized facilities
use. When natural gas is combusted, a high-pressure steam
is produced by mixing large amounts of water with heat and
then placed through a steam turbine to generate electricity.
“The facilities are planned to be air cooled. They’ll essentially
use fans to cool it down whereas other types of electricity
consume an enormous amount of water,” says Wilkerson.
“These facilities will use about 95 percent less water than
other traditional sources.”
The Brooke County plant will be capable of powering
700,000 homes, supporting roughly 1,164 direct and indirect
jobs while investing in local businesses. Similar to the Harrison
County plant, up to 30 of these jobs will include full- and
part-time employees. This facility is expected to provide $1.25
billion in economic benefits with an economic impact of $440.5
million in output.
“These two plants will have close to 2,000 jobs combined
that they will either create or maintain,” says Wilkerson. “The
construction jobs are even more than that. There will be hundreds
of people on-site to build each one of these.”
Currently, both facilities are still in the initial planning
process but are expected to reach financial closure later this
year, allowing construction to begin shortly after. Construction
on both plants is expected to take between two and a half to
three years.
Each plant will provide sufficient funds to its designated
county while also supporting local businesses, driving development
into West Virginia and keeping the state competitive
in the energy industry. The Harrison County plant will provide
$1 million to the county when construction begins, as well as
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