Second Lordstown power plant approved

Staff report

COLUMBUS

The Ohio Power Siting Board on Thursday authorized construction of a second Clean Energy Future natural-gas-fired power plant in the Lordstown Industrial Park.

The company expects to start building the 940-megawatt Trumbull Energy Center in November and begin commercial operation by June 2020.

The siting board also approved Clean Energy Future’s request to increase the capacity of its first power plant, called the Lordstown Energy Center, from 800 megawatts to 940 megawatts.

The Lordstown Energy Center is currently under construction and has about 700 construction workers on site, said Arno Hill, Lordstown mayor.

“It’s a boon for Lordstown village, it’s a boon for the school district. Hey, I’m glad,” Hill said of learning that both plants will be built.

The village is likely to approve the proposed enterprise-zone agreement with Clean Energy Future for the second plant as early as next week, Hill said.

It will be a similar agreement to the one it has for the first plant – revenue to the village from income taxes and corporate taxes.

The Lordstown Board of Education recently approved an agreement with Clean Energy Future that will pay the district between $24 million and $28 million over 15 years in exchange for allowing the 15-year, 100 percent property-tax abatement for the second plant.

The two plants together will pay the school district about $47.5 million over 15 years when both plants are running or about $3.2 million per year.

Each plant is a $900 million investment. The first one will employ 19 permanent employees.