The cost of fuel is one of the most important factors affecting power plant profitability, but flexibility and efficiency are also vitally important to success. One impressive new plant in Ohio—the Lordstown Energy Center—is positioned to profit from inexpensive gas while utilizing proven technology to economically produce reliable power. The project is a notable POWER Top Plant award winner.
The power industry has changed dramatically over the past decade. One of the driving forces behind the transformation has been the growth of shale gas production. Shale gas is natural gas—primarily methane—found in shale formations, some of which were formed during the Devonian and Ordovician periods of Earth’s history.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the shales were deposited as fine silt and clay particles at the bottom of relatively enclosed bodies of water more than 300 million years ago. At roughly the same time, primitive plants were forming forests on land and the first amphibians were beginning to appear. Some of the methane that formed from the organic matter buried with the sediments escaped into sandy rock layers adjacent to the shales, forming conventional accumulations of natural gas, which are relatively easy to extract. But some of it remained locked in the tight, low-permeability shale layers, becoming shale gas.
Two of the more prolific natural gas-producing shale formations in the U.S. are the Marcellus and Utica plays. Both are in the Appalachian Basin and extend from the state of New York in the north to northeastern Kentucky and Tennessee in the south. Marcellus’ footprint covers about 95,000 square miles with a prospective area of about 72,000 square miles, while Utica’s footprint is even larger. However, Utica Shale can be as much as 7,000 feet below Marcellus Shale, so it is far less developed.
In its most-recent estimate of proved natural gas reserves, which are those volumes of shale gas that geological and engineering data demonstrate with reasonable certainty to be recoverable in future years from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated the Marcellus play had 123.8 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of shale gas in Pennsylvania and West Virginia alone. Utica and the underlying Point Pleasant formations were estimated to have 26.5 Tcf of proved reserves in Ohio. The two plays account for nearly 50% of all shale gas proved reserves reported by the EIA.
A Team of Experts
With all that relatively inexpensive fuel available, it’s not surprising to see new natural gas-fired power plants springing up in the Marcellus and Utica regions. One impressive power station that began commercial operation in October 2018 is the Lordstown Energy Center (LEC), located in Lordstown, Ohio. It receives its fuel via the Dominion East Ohio gas system, which allows it to produce power cheaper than many other generators. With two combined cycle units, LEC is a 940-MW electric generating facility. It provides safe, clean, efficient, and reliable power to approximately 850,000 homes and businesses served by the PJM Interconnection regional transmission network.
The plant’s operating company, known as Clean Energy Future—Lordstown LLC, is majority owned by a subsidiary of Macquarie Infrastructure Partners III and its co-investors, with Siemens Financial Services and Clean Energy Future LLC also holding stakes. The plant is operated by Worley, a global provider of professional project and asset services, which staffs the facility with 22 on-site employees.
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