Project Background

Virginia is projected to face up to a 4,000 megawatt power shortage over the next 10 years, and approximately 65 percent or 2,800 megawatts of the shortage will be in the Northern Virginia region.  Energy distribution  in Northern Virginia is limited by a lack of local generation and transmission constraints.  Severe congestion in the regional power grid inhibits the orderly distribution of power, which may cause rolling blackouts and power outages in the near future.

Electric power is distributed within Virginia by an electric power transmission system that is controlled by the PJM Regional Transmission Organization (PJM RTO). The transmission system includes high-voltage, high-capacity transmission lines,   including 500kV and 230kV power lines traversing Green Energy Partners’ site. Because of Green Energy Partners’ unique location, power generated from the proposed energy facility will be placed directly into the electrical grid for local use. This means Green Energy Partners will not have to construct lines to deliver power outside of the site.

Northern Virginia and Loudoun County are leaders in the high technology industry and are facing escalating reliability problems with electrical power generation and transmission, which has resulted in high prices, threats of rolling blackouts, appeals for voluntary curtailment by consumers and the proposal of numerous transmission lines throughout the county. Resolving electricity reliability problems in a crisis atmosphere undermines customer confidence and is almost always unnecessarily expensive. Electricity is an integral part of life, and electric system reliability is indispensable to support residential, commercial, industrial and governmental functions. Lack of reliable electricity is not just an inconvenience but it creates an economic loss and social hardship.

Some facts:

• More than 90 percent of the electrical energy generated by utilities in Virginia is produced from coal and nuclear sources.
• Bulk power is moved through the state on large transmission lines.
• A network of smaller, lower voltage lines distributes the power from the larger power lines and individual generating facilities to consumers in urban and rural areas.
• The production and combustion of coal has the largest environmental impacts of all of the fossil fuels.
• Technology for capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide is expensive and unproven.
• Natural gas produces significantly less greenhouse gas emissions than coal and petroleum fuels when burned for power generation.
• Natural gas has an additional advantage over coal when used in highly efficient combined cycle gas turbines.
• The proposed energy park will provide the means to produce electric power in a clean and efficient manner, and reduce the need for new transmission lines.

During congressional testimony, James Hansen, a noted climatologist and director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told lawmakers that “phasing out the use of coal except where carbon is captured … is the primary requirement for solving global warming.” The Environmental Protection Agency data on individual coal-fired generating units found that in 2020, 68 percent of the 1,041 total coal-fired, electric-generating units in the eastern half of the U.S. will still lack sulfur dioxide scrubbers or advanced nitrogen oxide controls.

Green Energy Partners is proposing to build a primary and peak demand facility with a rated electrical output of up to 981 megawatts at standard atmospheric conditions. It includes a 586 megawatt combined cycle natural gas turbine unit that will utilize waste water for steam cooling, two 197 megawatt simple cycle peaking power natural gas turbines, and a one megawatt photovoltaic solar array that would be Virginia’s largest. The solar array, combined cycle, and peak generating turbines will provide a dedicated, reliable source of power for the electrical grid.  The energy facility will use up to 5 million gallons per day of waste water effluent for cooling water in the plant. This unique process could potentially eliminate up to 2 billion gallons of effluent per year that is currently being discharged directly into the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay from the Leesburg Sewage Treatment Plant. This process will be one of the first of its type in the Potomac River and will be a prime example of a local government’s ability to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay. Green Energy Partners is in discussions with the Town of Leesburg to use the waste water from the Leesburg Sewage Treatment plant, as well as Loudoun Water for the use of reservoir water as a backup water source. 

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