Harrison Power LLC and its affiliate EmberClear of Houston, Texas, recently announced that progress continues on the development of a natural gas-fired electric power generating plant slated for Cadiz in Harrison County.
According to Raj Suri, CEO of EmberClear, while the facility’s groundbreaking originally slated for the Fall of 2018 has been delayed until the first half of 2019, significant milestones have been achieved that continue to move the project forward. EmberClear intends to construct a 1050 MW natural gas-fired electric power generation facility on about 100 acres in the Harrison County Industrial Park.
EmberClear, which will invest nearly $1 billion in the construction, estimates that the facility will provide enough electricity to power one million homes. The project is expected to bring about 700 construction jobs to the county for three years, and then create over 20 permanent skilled jobs. The plant is being built near shale formations containing prolific amounts of low-priced natural gas. Several pipelines operated by Dominion East, Spectra, Energy Transfer and Columbia are already located within a few miles of the project site. In addition, several fractionation and gas distillation facilities already in Harrison County have plans to expand production.
Earlier this year, the Harrison County Commissioners approved an enterprise zone tax exemption for Harrison Power LLC. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio also issued a Certificate of Operation for the facility. In November, it issued a similar certificate to a related entity, Harrison Power Transmission LLC for the transmission line that will connect the facility to the AEP Ohio Transmission Company, Inc. Nottingham Substation.
According to Suri, while he is pleased with the forward momentum, “the regulatory process has been slower than expected, likely due to the increased volume of activity in Ohio’s oil and gas industry.” “Harrison County is pleased to see progress continue on this important facility,” said Nick Homrighausen, Harrison County’s Executive Director of Community & Economic Development. “In a large and complex project with as many regulatory hurdles as this one has, having slight delays is not uncommon. We continue to work diligently with the developer towards completion of this project. This project shows Harrison County’s potential to be a major player in the shale oil and gas industry. I’m excited to see additional projects come our way.” For further information, please contact: Nicholas A. Homrighausen, Community Improvement Corporation of Harrison County. at (P) 740-942-2027 or (E) nhomrighausen@harrisoncountyohio.org.