By Eric Scicchitano, The Daily Item, November 15, 2017

SHAMOKIN DAM — Panda Power Funds expects its Hummel Station natural gas power plant to go into operation in February while Sunbury Generation, the landowner behind the project, expects construction of a second plant to follow.

State environmental officials, including Secretary Patrick McDonnell, on Wednesday toured the estimated $1 billion facility under construction along the Susquehanna River in Snyder County.

Royce Stricklan, project manager with Panda Power Funds, put Hummel Station at 88 percent complete. The 1,124-megawatt plant is expected to start feeding electricity to regional transmission organization PJM’s grid in February and build to full power by May when the plant will be handed over from the builder to the operator.

“We’ll go through an escalation where small amounts of power will be exported, then larger and larger amounts and then more continuous larger amounts,” Stricklan said.

Transportation and productivity issues — including an electrical fire that necessitated the replacement of a generator — set the project back about three months, Stricklan said. The month originally targeted for full operation was February.

Bechtel and Siemens Energy are the construction consortium for the power plant — Siemens having manufactured the system in Charlotte, N.C., and Bechtel responsible for engineering and construction. Panda, of Texas, is financing the bulk of the build and will operate the facility.

UGI Energy’s 34-mile pipeline running south from Lycoming County will fuel the plant with Marcellus Shale gas. The facility is expected to power 1 million homes in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. The replacement of Sunbury Generation’s 1940s-era coal plant is billed by Panda as one of the largest in the country.

Hummel Station nearing completion

Muhammad Zaman, Air Quality Program Manager, Marcus Kohl, DEP Regional Director, Patrick McDonnell, DEP Secretary, answer questions about the Panda Hummel Station on Wednesday morning.

State Department of Environmental Protection officials hailed the power plant’s efficiency. McDonnell said there will be a 97 percent reduction in water usage compared to the old facility. Muhammad Zaman, air quality program manager, said greenhouse gasses would be lessened by 60 percent.

“Water quantity is also water quality. The more water you have, the more dilution you have, the better your water quality is within the river and within surrounding streams,” McDonnell said.

“There’s a tremendous gain as far as the river goes in temperature. When you simply use that little water for cooling purposes you’re not heating up that much water. What the river’s getting back is something that’s much more sustainable to aquatic life,” said Marcus Kohl, director of DEP’s Northcentral Region.

Work continues at the The Panda Hummel Station in Shamokin Dam on Wednesday morning.

Hummel Station is being built on 20 acres of about 200 owned by Sunbury Generation, all designated by the state as a Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zone with tax incentives for developers.

Sunbury Generation has a 30-year lease with Panda Power Funds and the two could be in business together again for a second plant, according to Sunbury Generation President Dave Meehan.

On Thursday, Meehan said his firm “partnered with Panda again” to develop a 1,100-megawatt plant on an adjacent 25.45-acre plot.

Meehan wouldn’t speak to financing for the proposed project and said, at this point, it’s in the permitting phase. Shamokin Dam Borough Council gave conditional approval for the project late last year. “The market has to cooperate,” Meehan said. “It’s going to come. It’s needed. We’re going to build another one.”

According to Energy Information Administration construction estimates for natural gas power plants — $1 million per megawatt — the proposed project also would top $1 billion.

Source: http://www.dailyitem.com/content/tncms/live/

PA DEP will take comments and then they will permit the plant, no matter what the comments say. Nice deal for a New York based company–put the plant and its pollution in the far corner of PA, export the power and the profits to NY.

Mary Wildfire, Roxane County, WV