The developer of a 950 MW natural gas-fired power plant in central Pennsylvania is expected to break ground on the $800 million project sometime next year.

Clinton County officials said Renovo Energy Center, which was announced in 2015, is on track to start construction in 2018. Renovo two years ago filed an application with the state Department of Environmental Protection. Bechtel Corp.’s infrastructure and financing arm, Bechtel Development Co., is behind the project. The combined-cycle facility is to be a dual-fuel facility that would use ultra-low sulfur diesel to generate electricity during gas supply interruptions.

The plant is to be sited on a 68-acre former rail yard site in Renovo, PA. Construction is expected to employ up to 500 people, with another 30 employed full-time after it enters service. Construction is expected to take more than two years. Renovo Energy plans to sell electricity into the wholesale market.

In addition to the turbines and steam generators, the proposed facility would include two auxiliary boilers, two emergency generators, an emergency firewater pump and a natural gas heater. The boilers and heater would only burn pipeline quality natural gas, the company said in its plan approval application. The emergency firewater pump and emergency generator would utilize the diesel fuel oil.

Power developers have flocked to the Northeast to take advantage of low-cost natural gas. Dozens of gas-fired facilities are under construction throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.