Group Files Plans for Massive Gas-Fired Plant, Data Center Complex in Virginia
A Virginia-based energy company plans to build a natural gas-fired power plant along with multiple data centers on some 2,200 acres in that state, according to documents filed with local planning authorities. Reports say the power plant could have as much as 3,500 MW of generation capacity, which would make it the largest such facility in the state.
Balico LLC, a private company based in Herndon, Virginia, has asked for permission to rezone land in Pittsylvania County. The company’s application said it seeks industrial use for the site, including a “campus for data centers … with private power generation.” The campus would be built on land that is currently zoned for residential development. County officials plan to review the application at a Nov. 7 meeting. Public meetings about the project are scheduled for Oct. 28 and 29 at two sites in the county.
Documents filed with the county show the site initially would have 15 Mitsubishi FT8 Mobilepac mobile gas turbines, each capable of generating 30 MW of electricity. The land also would have more than 70 buildings as part of a data center complex.
The plan also includes a second-phase development that would include a permanent gas-fired power plant featuring Mitsubishi M501JAC gas turbines, in a simple-cycle configuration. The document shows the permanent facility could have a “stack,” which suggests it would include multiple turbines. Mitsubishi rates the M501JAC as generating 330 MW to 453 MW in standalone configuration.
Drawings of the site filed as part of the application show about 13 acres would house a switchyard and electrical substation, and also include a wastewater treatment facility. The documents also show easements for gas pipelines. The 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline, which carries natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale plays, runs near the site and is mentioned in the application.
Balico also was behind plans to build the 1.6-GW Chickahominy power plant in Virginia, a project that was abandoned in 2022 amid opposition from several groups. The company wanted to build a natural gas pipeline across six counties to supply the plant. PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator, canceled an interconnection request from the company in that same year, citing a lack of progress in meeting development deadlines.
Chickahominy in a statement on its website wrote, “Unfortunately, opposition from outside interests and regulations, largely advanced by the renewable energy industry and state legislators that supported them, made it impossible to deliver natural gas to the site.” The plant would have been built in Charles City County.
A 1.1-GW gas-fired power plant project in the same area was canceled in 2021 amid local opposition. Michigan-based NOVI Energy had begun planning the C4GT plant in Charles City Countyin 2016. The facility had been sited near an industrial park. Regulators approved the project in 2017, but financing problems and opposition from community groups and environmentalists led NOVI to abandon its plans.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).