The ESC Harrison County power plant is a 610MW gas-fired combined-cycle power plant planned to be built in Harrison County, West Virginia, US.

The $616m project is being jointly developed by the New York-based Energy Solutions Consortium (ESC) and Caithness Energy, a privately-held independent power producer also based in New York.

ESC is responsible for the project development, including the concept design and regulatory approvals, while Caithness Energy will lead the construction and operations management of the facility.

The engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for the ESC Harrison County power plant was awarded in May 2019.

Project Gallery

Construction works on the plant are expected to be started in the second half of 2019, while commissioning is expected by 2022.

The combined-cycle facility is expected to generate enough electricity for approximately 425,000 US homes.

It is expected to create 400 construction jobs and up to 30 full-time jobs during operations.

Project location and site details

The ESC Harrison County power plant will be built on 16.5 acres of a 110-acre abandoned coal mining site on PeeKay Road near the Clarksburg city in Harrison County, West Virginia.

ESC Harrison County power plant make-up

The ESC Harrison County combined-cycle power plant will be equipped with a GE 7HA.02 air-cooled gas turbine paired with a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) and a steam turbine.

The GE 7HA.02 advanced gas turbine has a rated capacity of 384MW and can achieve full load in ten minutes with a ramp-up rate of 50MW/min. It will operate with a maximum heat input of 3,492.2 million metric British thermal units per hour (MMBtu/hr).

The combustion turbine will be equipped with dry low-NOx (DLN) combustors and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems to control emissions.

The gas fuel will be pre-heated prior to combustion, with the help of a 5.5MMBtu/hr fuel gas heater (FGH), to increase the efficiency of the combustion turbine.

The heat exchangers of the HRSG will recover the heat from the exhaust gas of the combustion turbine to produce steam, while duct burners (DB) with a maximum of 1,001.3 MMBtu/hr of duct firing will be installed to produce additional steam for power generation.

A closed-loop cooling system using dry air-cooled condenser (DACC) will be employed to condense the steam for reuse as feed water to the HRSG.

The other facilities of the plant will include a 77.8MMBtu/hr auxiliary boiler, an ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD)-based 2MW back-up power generation facility along with a 3,000 gallon diesel storage facility, and a 315hp fire water pump.

Power transmission and distribution

The electricity generated by the facility will be evacuated through a 138kV transmission line connecting to the First Energy’s existing Glen Falls 138kV substation located approximately two miles north of the project site.

The output of the plant will be sold in 13 states through the grid network of Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM) Interconnection System.

Natural gas fuel supply

The ESC Harrison County power facility will receive natural gas supply through a lateral pipeline connection with an existing interstate pipeline owned and operated by Equitrans Midstream.

Contractors involved

Gemma Power Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Argan, was awarded the EPC contract for the ESC Harrison County power plant in May 2019.

GE will supply the major equipment for the plant, including a 7HA.02 series combustion turbine.