$6Billion Power Plant Proposed for Surry

About 2,200 People Would Be Employed During Construction of the Coal-Fired Plant That Could Be in Operation

Old Dominion Electric Cooperative is proposing to build a $6 billion coal- and biomass-fired power plant on 1,600 acres in Surry County, the nonprofit announced Tuesday.

The power-generation plant, named Cypress Creek Power Station, is still in preliminary stages and will require several local, state and federal permits before construction can begin.

The cooperative generates, purchases and transmits power generation and transmission for 12 small community utilities, 10 of which are in Virginia. In-state, ODEC supplies power for about 390,000 customers. Officials said construction of a new plant is essential to meet energy demand that the cooperative projects will double in the next two decades.

Building the coal plant would take between four and six years, and the cooperative is targeting 2016 for the facility to be operational, said Jeb Hockman, an ODEC spokesman.

During construction, the site would employ an estimated 2,200 people. Once its completed, the plant would have between 150 and 200 permanent positions, the cooperative said.

The cooperative announced in January it was considering constructing a new power station either in Surry or Sussex counties.

After several months of study, it settled on the Surry site because of its access to existing transmission lines, rail transportation and sufficient water supply, Hockman said. It still is evaluating the Sussex site, and retains an option to buy 1,200 acres of land there.

A nearby rail line is essential to the plants plan for using coal primarily from the Appalachian Mountains. It would be mixed with a small percentage -- perhaps 2 percent to 3 percent -- of a fuel called biomass, a renewable resource made from grinding stumps, limbs and other detritus left over from logging and lumber operations into small pellets.

""From an environmental standpoint, were going to use as much biomass as we can,"" Hockman said.

SOURCE: IstockAnalyst