NTE Energy’s $500m Kings Mountain Energy Center enters into operations

NTE Energy has commenced operations at the Kings Mountain Energy Center, a 475MW natural gas-fired power plant built with an investment of $500 million in Kings Mountain, Cleveland County, North Carolina.

The Kings Mountain Energy Center will be providing electricity to more than 400,000 homes. The gas-fired power plant is supported by long term power purchasing agreements with nine municipalities in the Carolinas.

The NTE Energy power plant in Cleveland County comprises a Hitachi Power Systems Americas (MHPSA) M501GAC combustion turbine generator (CTG), a Vogt Power International supplementary fired heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) alongside a Toshiba America Energy Systems steam turbine generator (STG).

Mitsubishi’s GAC turbine technology, which has been integrated in the Kings Mountain Energy Center, gives it a combined-cycle configuration to help the power plant recover exhaust heat from the gas turbine to generate steam, which is then passed via a steam turbine to produce more energy by using the same initial fuel.

NTE Energy’s 475MW Kings Mountain Energy Center enters into operations. Image courtesy of Maxim Weise at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Seth Shortlidge – NTE Energy CEO, commenting on the commissioning of the Kings Mountain Energy Center, said: “We are extremely proud of this milestone, and offer our thanks and congratulations to everyone who had a hand in bringing this state-of-the-art facility to completion.

“We have enjoyed building long-lasting relationships with the City of Kings Mountain and our customers as we work to bring significant power cost savings and economic development opportunities to the Carolinas.”

Gemma Power Systems, the EPC contractor of the gas-fired power plant in Kings Mountain, commenced construction in March 2016. Over 500 construction jobs were created during the construction stage while 25 people have been employed to take care of the daily operations of the Kings Mountain power plant.

Last month, NAES, a wholly owned subsidiary of ITOCHU took over the operation and maintenance of the Kings Mountain Energy Center on behalf of NTE Energy.

Earlier in the year, NTE Energy announced the commissioning of the 475MW Middletown Energy Center, a gas-fired power plant built in Middletown, Ohio. The Florida-based company is also engaged in the construction of the 500MW Reidsville Energy Center, a gas-fired power plant in Rockingham County, North Carolina.

NTE Energy is also developing the Anderson County Energy Center, a gas-fired power plant with an investment of over $1 billion and with a capacity of around 1,000MW in Anderson County in South Carolina.