RICHMOND, Va., June 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Dominion Virginia Power began construction of the 585-megawatt Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center in Southwest Virginia this afternoon. Construction of the clean-coal power station is scheduled to take four years.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality issued the necessary air permits today following unanimous approval by the State Air Pollution Control Board last week. The Virginia State Corporation Commission had approved the $1.8-billion project on March 31.
The power station is part of Dominion's response to meeting a projected growth in demand for electricity of 4,000 megawatts from its customers by 2017, or enough electricity to power 1 million homes. Virginia City will be one of the cleanest power stations of its kind. The circulating fluidized bed unit will use coal and up to 20 percent biomass for its fuel.
The station will provide nearly 1,000 jobs during construction and require a permanent staff of more than 75 people once it begins operating. It will create about 350 mining jobs. A Virginia Tech economic impact study concluded that the station will generate about $440 million a year in tax revenues and other benefits for Wise County.
Dominion Virginia Power is a subsidiary of Dominion , one of the nation's largest producers of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 26,500 megawatts of generation. Dominion serves retail energy customers in 11 states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at http://www.dom.com/.
