Yet another natural gas-fired power plant is moving ahead in the Appalachian Basin, as Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors LLC (FTAI) has issued a final investment decision to build a 485 MW facility in southeast Ohio.

An affiliate of FTAI began permitting the project in 2017. The company said recently it has executed long-term, fixed price power sale agreements and closed on $588 million of financing for the project to be built at the Long Ridge Energy Terminal, formerly known as the Center Port Terminal, and now owned by FTAI.

The company also has executed an engineering, procurement and construction contract with Kiewit Power Constructors Co. to build the facility in Monroe County and a power generation purchase agreement with General Electric Co. (GE). Separately, GE earlier this month said an order has been placed for its HA gas turbine technology, a stream turbine generator and one heat recovery generator.

The Long Ridge Energy Terminal is on more than 1,600 acres straddling Monroe County, OH, and Wetzel County, WV. The site was first purchased by Hannibal Development Partners LLC in 2014 from Ormet Corp., which once operated an aluminum smelting plant at the site. The terminal now provides transloading and natural gas liquids storage services to operators working in the Marcellus and Utica shales. The site is also near the Clarington Hub and both the Columbia Gas Transmission and Dominion Energy Transmission pipeline systems.

FTAI said construction would start soon on the combined-cycle power plant, with service expected to begin by November 2021.

The plant is the latest of its kind planned for the region. There are more than 20 gas-fired facilities under construction or being upgraded in the PJM Interconnection, the grid serving all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia.

Gas-fired electricity output exceeded coal-fired generation last year for the first time in the history of PJM, according to the grid operator’s independent market monitor. Natural gas units accounted for 30.6% of PJM’s generation mix in 2018, compared to coal units’ share of 28.6%.