Second Lordstown power plant will generate millions in economic activity

Staff report

LORDSTOWN

Bill Siderewicz, president of Clean Energy Future, the company developing a second gas-fired power plant in Lordstown Industrial Park, provided some impressive numbers Monday in village hall.

The power plant, to be known as Trumbull Energy Center, will produce $149 million in property taxes for Lordstown and Trumbull County over the next 50 years.

It will generate $1.9 million in income taxes and $85 million of profit taxes for Lordstown over that span. It will generate $11.5 million in water revenue for the city of Warren.

It will generate $137 million in union wages during the 34-month construction that is expected to begin this summer, 1 percent ($137,000) of which will be paid to Lordstown as income taxes.

Over 50 years, workers running the plant will earn $165 million. The company will buy $617 million worth of materials and services during construction and operation.

Siderewicz developed and is part owner of the first power plant in the village, known as the Lordstown Energy Center. But a dispute developed between him and the majority owner of that plant, Australia-based Macquarie Group.

Macquarie refused to sign an agreement involving the industrial park that would allow the second plant to be built, so Siderewicz sued in September 2017 in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court asking the court to enforce the agreement.

A negotiated settlement was finalized Friday.

Siderewicz said the next step will be to put together $925 million worth of financing, but he has concerns about whether state officials will carry out the “bailout” of two northern Ohio nuclear power plants, which could harm the two Lordstown power plants.

The second plant will be nearly the same as the first, 940 megawatts.