After a Decade on Ice, $1B Gas-Fired Power Plant Returns in West Virginia

Calpine LLC is advancing a greater than $1B pure fuel–fired energy plant close to Moundsville, W.Va., reviving a challenge first permitted greater than a decade in the past as electrical energy demand rises throughout the service territory of PJM Interconnection, which incorporates West Virginia.

The challenge, introduced Jan. 22 by Gov. Patrick Morrisey, would add roughly 500 MW of capacity to the regional grid and is anticipated to generate greater than 400 development jobs and about 25 everlasting positions as soon as operational, in keeping with the governor’s workplace.

Calpine is a enterprise unit of Constellation Energy, which earlier this month accomplished its acquisition of Calpine from Power Capital Companions, creating one of many largest energy technology portfolios within the U.S.

Public information present that the Moundsville facility was initially proposed and permitted in 2014 below a distinct developer however by no means superior to development. The approval remained inactive for greater than a decade, a time when power-market circumstances in PJM didn’t help widespread improvement of service provider combined-cycle crops. State and native officers now see Calpine’s transfer as a revival pushed by stronger market alerts and growing demand for dispatchable technology.

A draft Allow to Assemble issued by the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Safety authorizes the challenge as a 549-MW nominal combined-cycle pure fuel facility. 

The allow identifies two large-frame combustion generators paired with heat-recovery steam mills and a steam turbine, specifying GE Body 7FA-class models outfitted with selective catalytic discount, dry low-NOx burners and oxidation catalysts as major emissions controls. Categorised as a Prevention of Important Deterioration main supply, the ability should meet the Clear Air Act’s highest preconstruction requirements and safe a Title V operating permit inside a yr of startup.

Gasoline below the allow is restricted to pipeline-quality pure fuel, with ethane mixing capped at 25%. Annual emissions limits are set for nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and greenhouse gases.

Native officers stated the plant’s location—a part of the previous Hanlin-Allied-Olin industrial website alongside the Ohio River north of Moundsville and 11 miles north of Wheeling—has been into consideration as an influence technology website for years. 

Marshall County Fee President Scott Varner informed native media that the county fee and the Marshall County Board of Schooling authorised lease and payment-in-lieu-of-tax agreements in December, clearing the best way for Calpine to finish website due diligence and advance improvement.

Calpine executives stated the revived proposal displays improved economics and rising regional demand. In a state launch, Suriyun Sukduang, the corporate’s vp of origination, stated Calpine’s expertise constructing and working gas-fired services in PJM positions it to maneuver the challenge ahead whereas delivering development jobs, tax income and broader neighborhood advantages.

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Why Lengthy-Permitted PJM Initiatives Are Re-Rising

Throughout PJM Interconnection’s footprint, spanning the MidAtlantic and components of the Midwest, the reactivation of gas-fired initiatives permitted within the mid-2010s displays a shift in planning assumptions moderately than a short-term market swing.

In its 2025 Lengthy-Time period Load Forecast Report, PJM stated it revised demand projections to account for “giant, unanticipated load modifications,” together with development in data-center load throughout a number of transmission zones. The up to date forecast initiatives summer time peak load development averaging about 3.1% yearly in the course of the subsequent decade, with internet vitality development averaging roughly 4.8% yearly—properly above the assumptions embedded in planning fashions a decade in the past.

As a result of PJM’s resource-adequacy and transmission-planning processes are anchored to long-range load forecasts, larger projected peaks and vitality consumption enhance the system’s modeled want for dispatchable capability over time. 

In that context, initiatives which have already cleared environmental allowing however stalled below flatter demand expectations can re-enter improvement with a distinct danger profile, significantly as allowing timelines have turn into a binding constraint for brand new entrants.

The result’s a planning surroundings during which beforehand shelved, absolutely permitted combined-cycle initiatives carry a bonus: regulatory danger has largely been addressed, interconnection pathways are higher outlined and capability worth improves as forecasts rise. 

PJM’s newest load outlook doesn’t predict shortages, nevertheless it underscores how faster-than-expected demand development is reshaping long-term useful resource planning and prompting a reassessment of dormant initiatives as potential contributors to future reliability.

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What Comes Subsequent

Though the funding scale and capability have been confirmed, Calpine has not disclosed a development schedule, supply technique or contracting workforce. Firm officers haven’t indicated whether or not the plant will probably be delivered below a single EPC contract or a number of packages, nor introduced a goal industrial operation date.

ENR requested clarification from Constellation and, in an e-mail response, a spokesperson stated the challenge continues to be within the early phases of improvement. “We’re engaged in ongoing discussions with a number of events and sit up for sharing extra particulars because the challenge strikes ahead,” Linsey Wisniewski, senior supervisor of exterior communications at Constellation, wrote.

The Moundsville challenge is one in every of a number of large-scale technology proposals superior since Morrisey introduced his “50 by 50” technique final fall, which goals to extend West Virginia’s energy technology capability to 50 GW by 2050. State officers have stated extra gas-fired initiatives proposed throughout northern and central West Virginia might add greater than 2 GW of latest capability if constructed.

For now, Calpine’s subsequent steps embody finalizing website improvement, interconnection preparations and development planning, with extra particulars anticipated because the challenge advances.