Click here to subscribe today or Login.
SALEM TWP. — The public uproar in Newport Township has settled, Phase I on the Caithness Moxie Freedom Power Plant has been completed and Phase II has begun, according to Ross Ain, executive vice president for Caithness.
The New York-based Caithness Energy is a power-producing partner with Vienna, Virginia-based Moxie Energy LLC, to develop, construct and operate the Caithness Moxie Freedom Generating System.
In December, the civil work Phase I portion of the plant began and was completed in early spring. The second phase began in May and with 210 people currently working at the site.
“Construction is approximately 12 percent complete and a total of 200,000 working hours have been completed to get Caithness Moxie Freedom construction to this point,” Ain said.
Over the course of the construction, the project will average 250 jobs with 600 jobs at its peak.
Gemma Power Systems, the engineering contract holder, has contracted to Sordoni Construction, of Forty Fort, for the building of the foundation, Ain confirmed.
The Transco Leidy system — where the plant will receive the shale gas — will run just feet away from the plant’s turbines. Thanks to the nearby PPL plant, high voltage energy lines run through the nearly 100-acre property.
Ain believes major equipment deliveries will occur periodically between October 2016 and March 2017. The company will tie into transmission lines in February 2017 with the station in operation by May 2018.
The system will produce more than 1,000 megawatts of energy as part of the PJM Interconnection system, a competitive wholesale electricity market and electricity grid system. When completed, the plant will be on the same grid with the Talen Energy’s Susquehanna Power Plant, which recently announced layoffs of 53 local workers.
Energy from the plant will power 900,000 homes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.