A rural county west of Richmond has said yes to one of the largest gas-fired power plants planned in the United States. On 20 October the Board of Supervisors of Cumberland County, Virginia, voted 3 to 1 for a conditional use permit that Dominion Energy needs for its Cumberland Energy Center. The plant would be about 3,000 MW, on roughly 150 acres off Duncan Store Road, in a larger parcel near the James River.
Two Blocks And No Price Tag
According to POWER magazine, the plant would consist of two combined-cycle gas-fired units, each built as two gas turbines feeding one steam turbine, and would run on natural gas. Dominion has not given a cost. It calls the plant a multi-billion-dollar project and says it will cost more than its 944 MW Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center, which carries a price of $1.47 billion and was approved by state regulators last year. Dominion targets the start of construction in 2029. Local radio station WVTF reports that building could be finished by 2034, depending on the state permitting process.
Dominion's reasons are demand and independence from the market. The company says Virginia's electricity use could almost double by 2035 and that the plant fits its all-of-the-above approach while reducing how much power it has to buy on the PJM market. POWER adds that Dominion sees a need for up to six new gas-fired plants over the next two decades, alongside more renewables. The reports do not tie this plant to any particular data center customer.
What The Supervisors Heard
Dozens of residents spoke before the vote. Most backed the plan and pointed to jobs and tax revenue. Others raised transmission lines, noise, water use and environmental effects, and some asked the board to wait for an independent analysis of Dominion's demand scenarios. An attorney from the Southern Environmental Law Center warned that the approval could make it easier to reopen the county's comprehensive plan, which marks the parcel as agricultural and rural residential. The county planning commission had recommended approval earlier.
The local permit is only the first of three steps. Dominion still needs an air permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and a finding from the State Corporation Commission that the plant is needed and its costs are reasonable.
The Steam Side Is Still A Blank
None of the reports says how the plant will get rid of its heat. A combined-cycle plant of this kind has two jobs to do with the air and water around it: the turbines take in air, and the steam cycle must give its heat up somewhere, to the air or to a river. Residents raised water use at the hearing, so that choice is one to watch when the state filings appear. Anyone who has stood on a site like this knows that the cooling system tends to decide the layout, the permit conversation and the neighbors' view of the plant long before the first turbine arrives.
Gas turbine plants of this size are covered on our page on gas turbines; for engine and turbine plants in general see power plants. A turbine order from the same week is the 372 MW plant near Abidjan.
Sources: POWER Magazine, WVTF Public Radio
