Richmond, VA based Dominion Resources, Inc. D announced that it is planning to build a natural gas fueled power station in Greensville County. The facility will have a capacity of about 1,600 megawatt.
Costing over $1 billion, this combined-cycle facility will comprise three gas-fired combustion turbines and a steam turbine. The electricity generated from the plant will be sufficient to power 400,000 homes at peak demand. Not only will the facility provide low-cost and reliable services but also create ample jobs.
Dominion has already filed the zoning permit applications and intends to submit other necessary paper work to the regulatory authorities this July. The project, subject to approval, is expected to begin construction in mid-2016 and commence commercial operation in 2019.
Greensville County has been chosen for the site because of its nearness to transmission and natural gas lines, water supply, railroads and major highways.
The station will be served by two natural gas pipeline systems – Williams' Transco natural gas line, an interstate transmission pipeline system providing natural gas to the north eastern and south eastern states of the U.S. and the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a natural gas transporting utility project designed to meet the power needs of Virginia and North Carolina.
Following the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed Clean Power Plan to cut carbon emissions from existing plants, responsible utilities like Dominion, NextEra Energy Inc. NEE, Exelon Corporation EXC and a few others are coming up with combined-cycle natural gas units which produce cleaner power at affordable prices .
A shift in the generation mix will not only help the utilities to comply with environmental regulations at the state and federal levels but also to cut their overall power production cost.
Earlier this month, both Dominion and NextEra filed requests with the regulatory authorities requesting rate cuts in their respective service areas. A common reason behind both the rate-cut request was the shift in their generation mix to natural gas.
Dominion currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Empresa Nacional de Electricidad S.A. EOC is a better-ranked stock in this space, carrying a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
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