'A superpower for energy': Homer City power station developers to present site plans

Developers will present plans Wednesday for a $10 billion, 3,200-acre, natural-­gas power plant in Indiana County.

The former Homer City Generating Station, once a coal-fired plant, is being proposed to provide the electricity required for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.

Members of Homer City Redevelopment Group will host an open house from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex in Indiana.

“The old city plant stopped operations in 2023, and it was the source of a lot of generational employment in Homer City,” said Steven Lomax, vice president for the Indiana County Chamber of Commerce, one of several regional groups co-hosting the open house. “We’re really excited, and I think it will be really great for jobs in the community.”

The event will be in the Kovalchick complex’s Toretti Auditorium, 711 Pratt Drive, Indiana.

Redevelopment officials estimate the project will create more than 10,000 on-site construction-related jobs, along with 1,000 permanent direct or indirect high-paying positions in technology, operations and energy infrastructure.

A spokesperson for the redevelopment group said the power plant will be capable of delivering up to 4.5 gigawatts of power, “making it highly competitive in the race to meet the growing AI and high-powered computing needs of our country’s leading blue-chip tech companies.”

The plant also will have capacity for thousands of homes on the local energy grid, project officials said. It is projected to be capable of doubling the generation capacity of the former plant, with 20% fewer emissions.

“The site’s scale, combined with the unique value in its existing infrastructure and the power attributes from when the coal plant was built back in the 1960s, enables us to build the nation’s largest gas power plant while also checking all the boxes you need for a data-center campus,” project officials told TribLive.

Workshop planned

In addition to Wednesday’s open house, Indiana University of Pennsylvania officials are hosting an Aug. 7 education workshop focused on the economic and workforce impact of the data center.

It will be held at the school’s Eberly College of Business, where speakers and panelists will provide a state and regional perspective on educational alignment and workforce development driven by the center and related industries.

It is primarily geared toward educators, and speakers will include ARIN Intermediate Unit 28 Executive Director Matt Curci, State Board of Higher Education Executive Director Kate Shaw and Homer Center Redevelopment Project Vice President Robin Gorman. Click here to register online.

Pending state and federal regulatory approvals, the first turbine deliveries to the site are anticipated in 2026, and project officials said they expect to be generating power by 2027. Much of the critical infrastructure for the project remains in place, including transmission lines connected to both PJM and New York Independent System Operator power grids.

Lomax said he’s looking forward to the project continuing the site’s legacy of power generation.

“It was supplying power to PJM as part of the Northeast power grid,” he said. “I think it’s really a case of leveraging the assets we have here. This can really be a superpower for energy in the region. As technology is ramping up, something like this is needed more than ever, and it’s great to be able to utilize some of the collaborative things the chamber has helped foster to bring this here.”