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Prepare for dirt to start moving on $890 million Lordstown power plant
By Ed Runyan
LORDSTOWN
The $890 million investment in the Lordstown Energy Center, a gas-fueled power plant in the Lords-town Industrial Park, is finalized, preparing the way for construction to start next week.
It means that heavy equipment will begin to arrive to clear the land in preparation for construction, said Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill.
“This is every mayor and school superintendent’s dream come true,” Hill said. “How often do you get an investment like this in your community? It stabilizes your finances for decades.”
A news release from the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber says the financial impact of this plant will be “almost equivalent to that of the GM manufacturing plant.”
Hill said he thinks Lords-town has a few advantages with available land and infrastructure that helped land the facility, but village officials also have responded effectively and tirelessly to companies making contact.
“This has been 26 months in the making.” Hill said, adding that the project to bring Matalco to Lordstown took 18 months.
“Independent studies have shown that the Northeast Ohio region will experience an economic benefit of more than $13 billion over the first 40 years of LEC’s economic life,” the chamber said.
The area will receive economic benefits from property-tax payments, income tax and spillover effects of goods and services purchased by LEC for ongoing operations, repairs and maintenance, the chamber said.
The financing includes $400 million of equity from Macquarie Infrastructure Partners III, which will provide 73 percent of the investment; and Siemens Financial Services, which will provide the other 27 percent, according to a news release.
The developer of the project, Clean Energy Future, will retain an interest in the project.
About 20 full-time workers will staff the facility when it is finished.
Siemens has selected Kokosing of Fredericktown and Columbus to be the general contractor. Union labor will be employed on the site and peak at about 450 to 500 workers, and it will be fully functional in June 2017, according to the chamber.
Natural gas emanating from the Utica gas formation and piped to Lords-town will be the only fuel used at the LEC, according to the chamber.
Dominion East Ohio will provide delivery of gas from the gas-pipeline system to the plant. LEC will buy water from Warren and Niles and discharge wastewater to the village sewer system for treatment and disposal by Warren.