A new natural gas-fired power plant that independent producer Cabot Oil & Gas has an exclusive contract to fuel has begun full operations in Pennsylvania.
The 1,485MW Lackawanna Energy Center near Scranton began commercial operations last week, burning about 240mn cf/d of natural gas shipped to the plant by Cabot.
Developer Invenergy in 2016 began construction on the plant, which includes three 500MW units of a combustion turbine and steam turbine that share a single generator. The plant will deliver its power onto the PJM Interconnection electric grid, which transmits electricity across all or part of 13 mid-Atlantic states.
The Lackawanna center begin partial service with one unit operating in June 2018, burning about 70mn cf/d of Cabot's gas, and was expected to bring its two other units on line at a later time.
Cabot has an exclusive supply contract with Lackawanna and another gas-fired plant, the 1,000MW Moxie Freedom power generation facility in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. That plant began operations in September and burns 160mn cf/d.
The power plant contracts represent a unique way for the producer to offload its prolific gas production from the Appalachian shale region, which is often constrained from a lack of sufficient takeaway capacity. Cabot in the third quarter of 2018 produced 2 Bcf/d, and in October forecast its fourth quarter output at 2.28 Bcf/d.
