Duke Energy’s plans to build and operate a 750-megawatt natural gas-fired combined cycle plant at the existing Lee Steam Station site in Anderson County are officially moving ahead, the Charlotte-based utility announced Friday.
With a reported investment of $600 million, the project will create at least 500 jobs during construction, and 25 full-time employees will operate the plant once it is completed, company officials said.
“Natural gas-fired combined cycle plants are a good match to meet the significant energy needs of our customers over the next 15 years, and are expected to be an important part of the future Duke Energy Carolinas generation portfolio,” said Clark Gillespy, Duke Energy state president – South Carolina. “They are very efficient in the production of electricity using natural gas as fuel and have very low plant emissions.”
The state Public Service Commission approved Duke’s plan in April. The new plant will use both a gas-fueled turbine to make electricity and a steam turbine fueled by the waste heat from the gas turbine.
The company is in the process of procuring equipment and the contracts to begin construction so the project will be commercially available in November 2017, officials said. Construction is expected to begin in summer 2015.
The new plant will replace the current coal-fired plant, which will be retired. The safety of Duke’s coal ash storage facilities had come under scrutiny since large amounts of coal ash spilled from a broken pipe at a retired power plant into North Carolina’s Dan River earlier this year.
Duke and the North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation, which will own 100 megawatts of the plant’s capacity, will jointly own the operation.
In April Duke had also announced jointly with Piedmont Natural Gas a request for proposals for a natural gas pipeline to North Carolina. The pipeline would service a planned natural gas-powered plant at Lee Station in Anderson County, currently powered by coal, in addition to several more gas plants in North Carolina.
