Largest US gas-fired power plant planned for data centers in Pennsylvania

Homer City Redevelopment, or HCR, and Kiewit Power Constructors intend to build up to 4.5 GW of gas-fired generation at a retired power plant in Pennsylvania to serve a planned data center campus, the companies said Wednesday.

The $10 billion generating project is slated to be built at the site of the 1,884-MW coal-fired Homer City power plant, which was shuttered in mid-2023. The 3,200-acre site, about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh, includes interconnections to the PJM Interconnection and New York Independent System Operator grids. The site interconnects with FirstEnergy Pennsylvania Electric’s system in PJM.

GE Vernova will supply the Homer City Energy Campus project with seven hydrogen-enabled, gas-fired turbines, with the first deliveries expected to begin in 2026, HCR and Kiewit said. The generating project is expected to start producing power by 2027, they said.

The power plant would be the largest gas-fired power plant in the United States, according to Kiewit. Greenhouse gas emissions from the power plant would be about 60% less per MWh than from the previous coal-fired power plant, according to HCR and Kiewit.

The planned power plant will be supplied with fuel from the Texas Eastern gas pipeline system. HCR received a $5 million state grant to support construction of an interconnection between the generating station and the pipeline, which is about five miles away.

The planned power plant will also provide electricity to “thousands of homes on the local grid,” HCR and Kiewit said.

The project is backed by Knighthead Capital Management, a New York City-based private equity firm that as of mid-September owned about 75% of Homer City Holdings, the owner of the Homer City power plant, according to a filing at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. GoldenTree Asset Management owns about 12% of the company.

HCR didn’t respond to questions about the project.

The project comes as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is working to set a policy for colocating data centers at power plants in PJM. Analysts expect FERC will potentially approve new colocation rules in PJM by the end of this year.

Partly driven by the power demands of AI computing, data centers could use 6.7% to 12% of all U.S. electricity by 2028, up from about 4.4% in 2023, according to a U.S. Department of Energy report released in December. Total use by data centers could grow from 176 TWh in 2023 to a range of 325 TWh to 580 TWh by 2028 — translating to a total power demand for data centers between 74 GW and 132 GW, DOE researchers said.