Bechtel and Siemens Team to Build Virginia Combined Cycle Power Plant

Panda Power Funds awarded the engineering, procurement, and construction contract for a 778-MW combined cycle power plant to a turnkey consortium of Bechtel and Siemens Energy Inc.

The Panda Stonewall generating station will be located in Loudoun County, Va., on a 101-acre site about four miles southeast of Leesburg. It is the sixth order awarded to Siemens by Panda and the fourth built by the Bechtel-Siemens consortium.

GEP/S Holdings LLC was the project’s original developer. Work began in late 2008, with public town hall meetings and community engagement events held in March 2009. The plant’s air permit was not approved until April 2013, after which Panda acquired a majority stake in the project. It received the plant’s certificate of public convenience and necessity in May of this year.

Bechtel is responsible for the engineering and procurement for the balance of the plant, and the installation, construction, and commissioning of the facility. Siemens will provide the power island package, including two SGT6-5000F gas turbines, one SST6-5000 steam turbine with an SCon-4000 condenser, two SGen6-1000A generators, one SGen6-2000H generator, and two NEM duct-fired heat recovery steam generators.

The facility will be built along existing transmission lines, eliminating the need for additional power lines. It will use reclaimed municipal wastewater from Leesburg to cool the plant, and as a zero-liquid discharge power plant, it will return no wastewater to the treatment facility. Panda says its advanced emissions-control technology will make it one of the cleanest fossil-fueled plants in the U.S.

“This is an advanced facility designed to be environmentally friendly while producing power for one of the fastest-growing counties in the U.S.,” said Todd Carter, president and senior partner of Panda Power Funds.

Construction will begin immediately and is expected to take approximately 30 months to complete.

—Aaron Larson, associate editor (@AaronL_Power, @POWERmagazine)