Investment firm to purchase Greene County natural gas plant
Associated Press
A New York-based investment firm has acquired the Hill Top Energy Center in Greene County.
The 620-megawatt natural gas power plant in Cumberland Township has been purchased by Blackstone Energy Transition Partners, a private equity arm of the investment company Blackstone, for close to $1 billion, it was announced this week.
The plant was completed in 2021. Blackstone is purchasing the plant from Ardian, a French-based investment firm.
In a news release, Bilal Khan and Mark Zhu of Blackstone Energy Transition Partners explained that “the electricity infrastructure required to power the AI revolution requires a tremendous amount of capital.” They characterized Hill Top as “among the best-in-class and a highly efficient modern power generating facility that is exceptionally well positioned to help Pennsylvania and the region as a key center of AI innovation.”
To coincide with the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit hosted by U.S. Sen. David McCormick at Carnegie Mellon University in July, Blackstone announced that it would pump more than $25 billion into Pennsylvania’s energy and digital infrastructure with an eye toward the growth of artificial intelligence technologies. Blackstone says Hill Top will, among other things, help power data center development in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey.
In a statement, McCormick said, “In addition to the historic $25 billion investment they announced at our Energy and Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh this summer, I am thrilled to see Blackstone deepening its commitment to Pennsylvania’s energy infrastructure.”
Buying Hill Top Energy Center is the second such purchase Blackstone has made recently. In January, the firm acquired the Potomac Energy Center, a 774-megawatt power plant in Loudon County, Va.
A spokeswoman for Blackstone did not know how many people are employed at the plant.