Big Natural Gas-Fired Power Plant May Be Built Near Rogersville

Published: 12:21 PM, 08/06/2009



Source: The Greeneville Sun

Oil & Gas Group Says

Facility Will Be Next

To John Sevier Plant;

No Word From TVA

The Tennessee Valley Authority is expected to build a new, natural gas-fired electricity-generation plant near Rogersville, the Tennessee Oil & Gas Association (TOGA) says.

A press release from TOGA said the planned natural gas-fired plant will be located beside the existing John Sevier power plant along the Holston River, which is coal-fired.

However, TVA has not yet announced where the natural gas-fired plant will be built in Northeast Tennessee.

Mike Harris, a TVA spokesperson, said this morning that the Holston River site "is not the preferred site until we announce it."

TVA has said previously the natural gas-fired plant is being built "to reduce the emissions from the existing plant."

The large amount of coal currently burned in the John Sevier Plant is imported from neighboring states, TVA has said.

Construction of the new 880-megawatt plant is expected to cost approximately $820 million, TVA said in June.

The natural gas-fired plant will be able to generate more electricity than the 712-megawatt John Sevier Plant, which is next to the Holston River on Old Highway 70 South, about five miles south of Rogersville.

Such a major new electric utility not only will need employees to operate it; in addition, construction of the big natural gas-fired plant can be expected to involve a number of contractors and employment of hundreds of workers.

NATURAL GAS POTENTIAL

The new plant may may lead to the development of Tennessee's substantial natural gas potential, according to the Tennessee Oil & Gas Association news release.

"TVA will need up to 160 million cubic feet of natural gas a day for the plant scheduled to come on line in late 2011. Tennessee is now producing about 16 million cubic feet of gas, but has immense potential to produce a great deal more gas," said Scott Gilbert, president of TOGA.

Gilbert, lead geologist for Vinland Energy, Oak Ridge, said that at least half of the counties in Tennessee have oil and gas potential.

"At this time, we are producing oil and gas from just 11 eastern and middle Tennessee counties, but there is reason to believe that most other eastern and middle Tennessee counties have potential for the production of gas or oil," he added.

Gilbert said that the most potential lies in a shale formation, called the Chattanooga Shale.

"The Chattanooga Shale lies like a blanket under the entire Cumberland Plateau and Highland Rim of eastern and middle Tennessee and in scattered locations in the rest of East Tennessee, at a depth of less than 1,000 feet to more than 4,000 feet," Gilbert said.

"Now with a very large potential market for our gas to TVA, we lack only the infrastructure, which will come with the additional leasing and drilling we anticipate," he stated.


Buck