Dive Brief:
- Invenergy LLC has filed a permit application with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, laying out plans for a large gas-fired power plant in Lackawanna County.
- If built, the Lackawanna Energy Center would be the second largest power plant in the state, with a maximum capacity of 1,300 MW generated by three turbines.
- Construction is planned to begin in June and the facility could be operational in 2017.
Dive Insight:
Invenergy's proposal for the Lackawanna Energy Center would make it the second-largest facility in the state, with only PPL Corp.'s 1,772-MW facility in Northampton County being larger. Construction would add 600 jobs to the state's workforce for two years, and the facility itself would create 30 permanent jobs. The company is also touting the tax revenue and local commerce benefits of the facility.
The plant will not have a significant impact on local power rates because the facility would remain relatively small in the PJM grid despite its size, an Invenergy spokesman told The Times-Tribune. "It would be hard to look at one plant on its own," PPL spokesman George Lewis said. "It's part of a really, really big market."
The company is still working to firm up gas supplies for the plant.
