Virginia’s State Corporation Commission (SCC) has approved a certificate of public convenience and necessity for Dominion Virginia Power’s proposed 1,588 MW natural gas-fired combined-cycle electric generating facility in Greensville County, VA.

In its final order, the commission determined that Dominion established a need for the additional capacity and energy that the project would provide. The SCC also found that the company adequately considered and weighed alternative options, including third-party alternatives and alternative self-build options, including renewable resource options, in its selection process.

“We find that the project will provide economic benefits to Greensville County, the Southside region, and the Commonwealth,” the SCC said.

In addition to the Greensville Power Station, the SCC approved construction of 500 kilovolt transmission lines, a switching station and associated facilities in Brunswick and Greensville counties to connect the facility to the electric transmission network. The project has an estimated $1.3 billion price tag.

The Greensville Power Station is expected to be online in 2019. Construction is expected to begin later this year on a 55-acre site that straddles the Greensville/Brunswick County line, a few miles from Dominion’s 1,358 MW Brunswick Power Station, which is expected to be fully operational in April.

SCC approval comes one year after Dominion announced the project (see Daily GPI, March 26, 2015). At the time, Dominion said the Greensville Power Station would be the largest gas-fired facility in the state and have combustion turbines and a steam turbine designed to generate enough power for 400,000 typical homes at peak demand.

The station would be served by a Williams’ Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Line, or Transco, natural gas line, which is being extended to the site, and the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), which would cross the station property when that pipeline is built. ACP remains on schedule for a 2018 in-service date, despite regulatory hurdles and stall attempts from opposed landowners, the company said recently (see Daily GPI, March 23).

The ACP, which filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last September, is being built by Dominion Resources Inc. in a joint venture with Duke Energy Corp., Piedmont Natural Gas Co. Inc. and AGL Resources Inc. (see Daily GPI, Sept. 18, 2015). The 550-mile ACP would help alleviate current gas supply bottlenecks in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays. The 1.5 Bcf/d line would originate in Harrison County, WV, run to Greensville County, VA, and then south into eastern North Carolina.