An estimated $1.2 billion combined-cycle natural gas power plant is under construction near Clarksburg, Va., the first of its kind in the state, and is being financed by private infrastructure investor and asset manager Blackstone through its Blackstone Energy Transition Partners unit.
Wolf Summit Energy’s 625 MW plant, which will feature GE Vernova gas turbines and includes partners Kindle Energy and Wolf Summit Energy to manage and operate the facility, is fully contracted and funded following its final investment decision on Nov. 13, according to Blackstone.
County commissioners in 2024 also authorized Equitrans Midstream to survey land owned by Harrison County for a natural gas pipeline at the site.
It’s unclear whether other partners have any financial stake in the project, which has received state and local incentives, including a 30-year county exemption from paying local property taxes.
Site preparation for the plant, including controlled blasting, is underway, with operations expected to begin in 2027, Blackstone said, adding that about 500 jobs were expected to be created during construction. A Blackstone spokesman declined to respond to an ENR inquiry about the contractors selected for the project.
Blackstone last year acquired a majority stake in Plano, Texas-based Westwood Professional Services Inc., an engineering firm that describes itself as specializing in wind and solar power, energy storage, power supply, electric vehicle infrastructure, public infrastructure projects and other construction. The company ranks 77th on ENR’s list of top design firms, with revenue of $412.8 million by 2024, with 44% in the electrical sector and 39% in building construction. Dean Palumbo, a former senior vice president at Stantec, was named Westwood’s chief operating officer in August.
Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, a Virginia-based cooperative with about 1.5 million customers through its 11 member-owner companies in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware, including data centers and other industrial facilities, agreed in July to buy the power the Wolf Summit plant will generate.
“Helping meet the growing demand for electricity from AI and other areas is one of our most compelling investment themes at Blackstone,” Bilal Khan, Blackstone’s senior managing director, said in a statement.
Originally proposed in 2017 by the Energy Solutions Consortium as a 579 MW combined cycle plant and an investment of $615 million, development of the project stalled after a lawsuit over air permits and funding issues, according to local media reports. The consortium withdrew from the project. Wolf Summit Energy, a subsidiary of General Electric, revived and expanded the project in 2023. The Blackstone spokesman also declined to say whether the plant will be co-located with a data center or if it is being designed to also use hydrogen-blended fuel.
New York City-based Blackstone is considered the largest investor in global data centers and AI infrastructure, according to a ranking by data centeran online industry publication. The company also announced in September its $1 billion acquisition of Hill Top Energy Center, a 620 MW gas-fired power plant in Pennsylvania, and a similarly valued purchase in January of Potomac Energy Center, a 774 MW gas-fired power plant in Virginia. Blackstone said it has been in the “final stage of development or construction” of about 1.6 GW of new-build US power generation capacity since early 2022 and that its Blackstone Energy Transition Partners unit has “committed more than $27 billion of capital globally across a broad range of energy industry sectors.”
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R) in August announced the state’s 50-for-50 generation plan, which will triple baseload electric capacity to 50 GW by 2050 from the current 16 GW. The plan includes easing regulatory hurdles for energy producers and would focus primarily on the “strategic development” of nuclear, coal and natural gas power sources.
