Mayor says second power plant will be built in Lordstown

Staff report

LORDSTOWN

If $890 million spent to create a 940-megawatt gas-fired power plant in Lordstown was a challenge to imagine, how about double that?

That will be the task today when officials from Clean Energy Future have a “formal kick-off announcement” to reveal that it is building not one but two $890 million power plants in the Lordstown Industrial Park.

Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill said Clean Energy Future will announce that it has plans to construct a second power plant, probably directly south of the plant now under construction on Henn Parkway.

With the first one called Lordstown Energy Center, the second one will be called the Trumbull Energy Center and “will be a mirror image of the first one,” Hill said.

Where the first plant is scheduled to be finished in May or June of 2018, the second one will begin construction in the first quarter of 2018 and be finished in the second quarter of 2020.

“Same company, Clean Energy Future. Almost an identical plant No. 2,” Hill said.

Hill said it appears that there is enough room on the acreage Clean Energy Future has to locate two power plants and still have some trees as a buffer between the plant and the nearest homes.

Ground was broken for the first plant in June, and 500 to 600 construction workers will be busy on the project this summer, Hill said. When it’s finished, about 20 full-time employees will work there.

Now those construction jobs will be spread out an additional two years, and most likely 20 more full-time workers will be hired permanently to operate the second plant, Hill said.

“It’s a big investment. It’s great to see Lordstown diversifying,” Hill said. Lordstown is known for manufacturing the Chevrolet Cruze at its General Motors plant, and the village also has a lot of agriculture, Hill said. “We’ve got a pretty good mix here,” he said.