Hancock County latest choice for natural gas-fed power plant

1/5/2001

ARCADIA, Ohio - A $500-million power plant that would burn natural gas to make enough electricity for 200,000 homes is proposed for northeast Hancock County, a New Jersey company announced yesterday.

Construction of the PSEG Power LLC plant depends on receiving permits from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Power Siting Board and receiving property tax abatements, company spokesman Paul Rosengren said.

Power generated by the plant, which is proposed to be built in Washington Township between Arcadia and Fostoria, would be intended for the Midwest market, PSEG spokesman Paul Rosengren said.

The plant, which would employ 25 to 35 people when it begins producing power in 2004, would operate year-round, 16 hours a day on weekdays. There is not enough demand for electricity at night or on the weekends to create a price that PSEG considers high enough to pay for the gas.

It expects to burn $23,400 worth of natural gas per hour that the plant operates.

The 1,100-megawatt plant is the fifth Midwest project and second in Ohio that PSEG has announced.

Several similar standby power plants have been built or announced throughout northwest Ohio.

The plant would burn natural gas to turn four turbines and use the 1,100-degree waste heat produced in that process to turn two more turbines, with all six producing electricity.

PSEG has options to buy 125 acres, north of State Rt. 12 between Township Roads 261 and 262. Washington Township trustee Lee Myers said the the trustees favor the proposal.