County Clears Final Hurdle for $2.5B Electric Generator Plant
Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
Anderson County council on Tuesday approved tax incentives for a $2.5 billion, 1,400-megawatt natural gas combined cycle generating facility with hydrogen capability on nearly 200 acres located on Highway 81 South near True Temper Road close to Starr.
“We think this is another great opportunity for Anderson County, and that it will eventually lead to many billions of dollars for the county,” said Anderson County Administrator Rusty Burns. “It will also be a great asset for our electrical grid, and we welcome the new high-paying jobs. It’s another win for Anderson County.”
Burns said the county has a long history of working with Duke Energy, more than 100 years, and that he looks forward to continuing the partnership for the good of the county and the state of South Carolina for years to come.
Anderson School Dist. 3 Superintendent Kathy Hipp said the new facility will also provide a reliable economic stream for her district, which she said is one of the poorest in the state.
“This will provide a welcome flow of steady income for our district, and it will really help us,” said Hipp. Hipp said Duke contacted her and other leaders about the project during the planning stages and has been in regular communication since.
The property generated $245 in tax revenue last year and is expected to bring in between $500,000 and $1 million in the next 18 months.
Hipp said Dist. 3 is among the poorest in the state and that the new revenue will help as they work to replace three older schools which were built in the 1950s. She praised the county council and the fee-in-lieu of taxes agreement negotiated with Duke to create the facility.
The plan aims to efficiently generate electricity by using two energy cycles: first, a gas turbine burns fuel (usually natural gas) to power a generator (Brayton cycle), then the hot exhaust, normally wasted, heats water in a Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) to create steam, which spins a second steam turbine for more power (Rankine cycle), boosting overall efficiency significantly over simple gas turbines.
County Economic Development Director Burriss Nelson said Duke committed an additional $100 million to create air-cooled generators instead of the more water-use intensive water-cooled units. Nelson said initially the plant will create 35 jobs at an average salary of $52 per hour. More jobs are expected as the facility grows.
The site is advantageous and would use existing transmission infrastructure nearby to provide about 1,400 megawatts of electricity to support the homes and businesses of a rapidly growing region and state. 1,400 megawatts (MW) of power can run a large city's homes, power hundreds of thousands of houses, operate major industries, or charge thousands of electric cars. This level of electricity can be expected to generally serve about 1.4 million average American homes (at 1 MW per 1,000 homes) or a large area like a big city, but the exact impact depends on usage, time of day (peak vs. average), and source efficiency.
