The gas plant on the old Homer City coal site now knows who will run it. Homer City Generation, L.P. announced on 12 November a long-term operations and maintenance agreement with Kyuden Energy Partners for its 4.4 GW plant at the Homer City Energy Campus in Indiana County, where the coal-fired Homer City Generating Station used to stand. The term of the contract was not disclosed.
Seven 7HA.02 Units, One Operator
According to the announcement, the plant is built around seven GE Vernova 7HA.02 gas turbines and is set to be one of the largest gas-fired plants in the United States. The developer puts the initial capital investment for power infrastructure and site readiness at $10 billion. More than 2,000 workers are on site already. Over the life of the project the company expects more than 10,000 direct construction jobs and, once the plant runs, about 1,000 permanent jobs, direct and indirect.
Kyuden is to provide the full scope of operation and maintenance and to support the plant in the PJM wholesale market, which covers 13 states and the District of Columbia. The two companies plan to build and train a dedicated team on site, and they name predictive maintenance and compliance work as part of the job from the first day. Corey Hessen, chief executive of Homer City Generation, and Tony Dabbene, chief executive of Kyuden Energy Partners, are quoted in the release. No date for first power is given there.
A Japanese Utility Behind The Contractor
The name is new, the company is not. Kyuden Energy Partners was IHI Power Services Corp., based in Aliso Viejo, California, until this summer. POWER magazine reported on 23 July that the rebrand followed the completed acquisition by Kyuden International, the overseas investment arm of Kyushu Electric Power, after IHI had announced the sale in March. The operator says it runs gas, biomass, hydro, battery, wind and solar sites across the country, without giving a number.
Homer City has been in these pages before, when AWS filed plans for 36 data center buildings next to the plant. The Kyuden announcement does not mention any data center customer.
Why The Operator Comes Before First Power
Signing the O&M contractor while the plant is still a construction site is good practice on a job of this size. The people who will run seven large gas turbines for decades want a say in where the maintenance access, the spare parts store and the instrumentation go, and they need months of training on the actual equipment before handover. A dedicated team trained on site is the right answer to that.
For suppliers of the balance of plant, the operator is also the customer after warranty. Questions about cleaning access, spare fans or motors and how a unit is isolated for repair while the rest of the plant keeps running tend to come from operators, not from the EPC contractor. It pays to have those answers ready early.
Sources: Kyuden Energy Partners and Homer City Generation (Business Wire), POWER magazine
