Dominion to hold groundbreaking ceremony for $1.3 billion power station

Dominion will hold a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday for the $1.3 billion Greensville Power station in Southern Virginia.

Richmond-based Dominion began construction on the 1,588-megawatt, natural-gas, combined-cycle plant in June. The project is about 10 percent complete.

When the station becomes operational by next year, it will provide enough power for 400,000 typical homes at peak demand.

“When it is completed in late 2018, it will be the largest gas combined-cycle electric generating facility in North America,”
Paul Koonce, CEO of Dominion’s Generation Group, said in a statement. “But what makes me even prouder is that, because of its strict carbon limits, the Greensville County Power Station will be the cleanest-burning gas-fired plant in the country. And that’s good news for our neighbors and the commonwealth of Virginia,”

Greenville is the second major station Dominion has built in the area.  Five miles away is the Brunswick County Power Station, which went online in April. It can produce 1,358 megawatts of electricity or enough to power 340,000 homes.

The 1,143-acre site Greensville Power Station site straddles the Greensville/Brunswick county line with 740 acres in Greensville County. The station will employ about 45 employees once it begins operating. Currently about 700 workers are on site. At the peak of construction, Dominion says it expects to have more than 1,200 workers.

In the first year of operation, the station is expected generate up to $8 million in property taxes for Greensville County.

According to Dominion, the new station also means savings for Dominion Virginia Power customers. Over more than 30 years, the plant’s operations are expected to save customers about $2 billion because Dominion won’t have to purchase 1,588 megawatts of capacity from the wholesale electric markets.

Greensville is expected to be a base-load station, meaning it will run nearly 24/7, taken offline only to perform routine maintenance on operating equipment.