The newest member of Dominion Virginia Power’s generation fleet, the 1,358 megawatt, environmentally clean Brunswick Power Station began producing electricity for the company’s customers on Monday.
The station, located in Brunswick County, uses natural gas and energy efficient technology to produce enough electricity to power 325,000 homes.
“The Brunswick Power Station is destined to be a workhorse, using combined-cycle technology that is clean and efficient and will produce reliable, low-cost energy for our 2.5 million customers,” said Paul Koonce, CEO of Dominion Generation Group. “I commend the Generation Construction team on the successful, on-schedule, on-budget completion of an important project.”
The station was needed to meet growing demand and to replace electricity from aging coal-fired power stations as Dominion transitions to a cleaner energy future.
Combined-cycle power stations such as Brunswick use low-cost, environmentally clean natural gas to produce electricity.Brunswick has three combustion turbines – essentially large jet engines. The combustion turbines generate electricity and then the heat is captured and used to create steam that is used to create even more electricity.
Construction on the station began in August of 2013. At the height of construction, the station had more than 1,500 workers on site. During the development and construction, the station was estimated to generate approximately $824 million in economic benefits for the state. The station has been estimated to pay about $4 million a year in local property taxes in 2017 and up to $5 million annually thereafter.
Upon commencement of operations, Brunswick Power Station will have 43 employees and an annual payroll of about $7.5 million. In the first full year of the station’s operation the fuel savings have been estimated to be nearly $100 million. Those fuel savings will continue over time, and the station is expected to save customers between $924 million and $1.5 billion over its expected life.
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