Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station begins commercial operation

© Tenaska

Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station, a new natural gas-fueled power plant in southwest Penn., recently began commercial operational.

The 940-megawatt (MW) plant is located near Smithton in South Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County. The plant serves homes in the PJM Interconnection market.

“Tenaska Westmoreland is a highly efficient generating facility that is well suited to meet the needs of the PJM market,” Tenaska CEO and Vice Chairman Jerry Crouse said. “We are excited to have this plant join our operating fleet, and we look forward to Tenaska Westmoreland being a reliable power producer for decades to come.”

Tenaska Pennsylvania Partners, LLC, which is comprised of affiliates of Tenaska, Diamond Generating Corporation (DGC) and J-POWER USA Investment Co., Ltd, owns Tenaska Westmoreland.

“This facility is a good fit for our North American power generation business,” Mark Condon, president and CEO of J-POWER USA, said. “We are pleased to see it achieve commercial operation in time for the winter season when power demand tends to trend higher.”

Construction of the generating station began in 2016. Black & Veatch was the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for the project. Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems provided the two natural gas-fueled turbines.