Dominion’s 1.59GW Greensville County Power Station begins operations

Dominion Energy has announced the commissioning of a 1,588MW natural gas-fired power plant in Virginia, called Greensville County Power Station, built by its subsidiary Dominion Energy Virginia with an investment of $1.3 billion.

Built over a 1,143-acre site located on the Greensville and Brunswick County line in southern Virginia, near Emporia, the new power plant comprises three Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas (MHPSA) 501 J advanced combustion turbine generators, three Alstom Heat Recovery Steam Generators and an Alstom steam turbine generator.

The Greensville County Power Station is expected to meet the power consumption needs of around 400,000 homes. Fluor has been associated with the combined cycle power plant as an engineering, procurement and construction contractor.

Greensville County Power Station of Dominion Energy in Virginia. Photo courtesy of Dominion Energy.

The Greensville County Power Station broke ground in June 2016 and was completed using over 1,800 workers during the peak construction stage. Post commissioning, the power plant’s operations are being handled by 49 full-time employees.

The Greensville County power plant will have an operating life of 36 years. It is anticipated to yield savings of nearly $2 billion to the customers of Dominion Virginia Power with the utility no longer required to purchase electricity from market sources.

Paul Koonce – CEO for Dominion Energy’s Generation Group, commenting on the commissioning of the Greensville County Power Station, said: “Greensville is a much welcomed addition to our Virginia service area.

“It will be a workhorse, running around the clock to provide our customers reliable, low-cost energy. It will also complement and support our growing solar fleet.”

According to Dominion Energy, the Greensville County power plant marks its second significant investment in Southside following the $1.1 billion worth Brunswick County Power Station, which opened in 2016. The Brunswick County Power Station, which has a capacity of 1,360MW, is in proximity with the new Greensville County Power Station.

Commenting on the commissioning of the Greensville County Power Station, Delegate Roslyn Tyler, representing the 75th District, said: “We are proud to have the station here in Greensville and with the sister power station in Brunswick County, I think we can truly say Southside is open for business.”

Currently, an existing natural gas pipeline provides fuel for the two power plants. Dominion Energy said that in the future they will be supplied with natural gas transported through the Atlantic Coast Pipeline following its completion.