Tenaska gets funding for South Huntingdon plant
Progress is reported in getting funding for a Westmoreland County combined cycle natural gas-fired power plant in the week before a Monday informational hearing for another in Greene County.
Tenaska, a Nebraska-based company with a regional office in Pittsburgh, announced the closing of approximately $780 million in commercial financing for the 925-megawatt Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station in South Huntingdon Township.
That project is owned by Tenaska Pennsylvania Partners LLC, a partnership of affiliates of Tenaska and Diamond Generating Corp., a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Corp.
Tenaska said in a news release that banks lined up to provide that funding, include MUFG Union Bank N.A., BNP Paribas, Citigroup Global Markets and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd.
Tenaska said it has raised approximately $14.4 billion in capital through bank facilities, capital market transactions, corporate facilities and equity since 1987, supporting development of approximately 10,000 megawatts of natural gas-fueled and renewable power projects.
Tenaska said it has approximately 2,500 megawatts in pre-financing development.
“Achieving financial closing for Tenaska Westmoreland illustrates our ability to develop and advance market-driven power projects,” Greg Kelly, president of Tenaska’s Development Group, said in his company’s news release. “We are pleased to reach this milestone and look forward to the next phase of the project.”
That next phase is construction which began earlier this year on the South Huntingdon project, with commercial operation targeted for 2018. Black & Veatch is the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project.
Mitsubishi’s Hitachi Power Systems will provide two natural gas turbines for Tenaska Westmoreland.
Tenaska’s announcement came nearly a week ahead of Monday’s 7 p.m. informational public meeting regarding the proposed 250-megawatt Hill Top Energy Center LLC plant along Thomas Road in Cumberland Township, Greene County.
It will take place at the United Mine Workers Union Hall, Pershing Boulevard in Nemacolin, not far from the 41.7-acre site proposed for the Hill Top plant.
If all goes as planned with that proposal, landowner and technical expert Bill Derby said the Hill Top project “is going to be a very clean, very high tech natural gas-fueled facility,” hiring 25-30 people.
The Hill Top proposal calls for “an average of about 250 skilled construction workers” for a two-year period beginning early in 2017, with 25 to 30 skilled workers to be hired for plant operations. Proponents believe it in turn would produce 110 new jobs in nearby communities.
Derby is a contact person for the Nemacolin gas-fired project along with Stanley M. Sears of Fairmont, West Virginia, whom Derby described as having technical background in electrical projects.
Regional state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman John Poister said the meeting will be an “environmental advocate hearing to explain the project” along the Monongahela River as well as take comments, questions and concerns from local residents, particularly in what DEP describes as environmental justice areas.
Census tracts meet the DEP definition of an environmental justice area (EJA) if there is a poverty rate of 20 percent or more or a non-white population of 30 percent or more. Cumberland isn’t an EJA but borders on EJAs in Monongahela Township and across the river in Masontown and German Township.
Likewise, the Tenaska Westmoreland site in South Huntingdon Township is not regarded as an EJA but portions of neighboring East Huntingdon Township are.
Poister said the technology being employed at Tenaska’s plant as well as the proposed Hill Top facility is similar to other gas-fired plants being proposed or built in Pennsylvania, such as the 550-megawatt combined cycle gas-powered plant Invenergy LLC would like to build on a former industrial waste dumping site near Buena Vista in Elizabeth Township, Allegheny County.
Chicago-based Invenergy is promising 200 to 300 jobs during a two-year construction period generating over $30 million in payroll, and to hire 21 full-time employees at an annual payroll topping $2 million.
However, the project has drawn local opposition, including many of the more than 100 people attending an Elizabeth Township Zoning Hearing Board meeting Wednesday, where Invenergy sought a variance to build its plant.
“We had received numerous emails and phone calls from people in the area,” said Tim Joyce, chief of staff to state Sen. James Brewster, D-McKeesport. “They were all against the project. They asked us for our support.”
Joyce said Brewster traditionally is “pro-industry, pro-jobs, pro-economic development,” but had to support those who didn’t want the plant in their backyard.
The board has 45 days to make a decision.