Bechtel completes Shamokin Dam power plant

Bechtel, a global engineering, construction, and project management company, recently completed construction of the Hummel Station Power Plant in Shamokin Dam Borough, one of the country’s largest coal-to-natural gas plants.

The plant, a joint venture of Panda Power Funds and Sunbury Generation, is expected to power more than 1 million homes.

The plant is located on the 18-acre site of a retired Sunbury coal-fired power plant within the 192-acre Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zone. The plant was decommissioned in 2014 following stricter environmental regulations and lower natural gas prices.

Bechtel handled the plant’s engineering, construction, project management, procurement, and startup services while Siemens provided the generators, turbines, and heat recovery steam generators. This is the fifth plant Bechtel has constructed for Panda Power Funds.

“The systems and people Bechtel mobilized to the Hummel Station site were the best of the best. They brought strong, recent experience from other Panda projects,” Royce Stricklan, Panda Power Funds’ Hummel Station project manager, said. “This experience and resource depth was illustrated in their overall execution and responses to the challenging situations you face on projects of this magnitude.”

During construction, approximately 1,000 jobs were created, and 30 permanent positions will support the plant’s operation.