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Editorial: Pumped storage station would benefit coalfield region

From The Bluefield Daily Telegraph:

Dominion Energy is planning to invest more than a billion dollars in the construction of a pumped hydroelectric storage station for the coalfield region of Southwest Virginia. This welcomed project will provide a significant economic boon to the coalfield region, and specifically the locality that is ultimately selected for the development.

The company is currently looking at a number of sites in the coalfield counties for the project, which would create hundreds of jobs during the multi-year construction phase and approximately 50 permanent positions. The hydroelectric storage power station will cost more than $1.8 billion to build, and will provide millions of dollars in new tax revenue for the locality that is ultimately selected for the development.

The tax revenue the pump station will generate is comparable to the existing Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center in Wise County. That project cost $1.8 billion to construct, and generates about $6 million a year in annual property tax payments to Wise County and St. Paul, and $25 million annually for the local economy.

“We paid $1.8 billion for Virginia City,” Greg Edwards, an external affairs representative for Dominion Energy, told the Daily Telegraph last month. “We expect this project to cost more than that. So, it is a significant investment.”

Legislation passed during the recently concluded session of the Virginia General Assembly authorized electric utilities such as Dominion to apply to the Virginia State Corporation Commission for permission to construct pump hydroelectric storage facilities in the coalfield region of Southwest Virginia.

The coalfield counties include Tazewell, Buchanan, Dickenson and Russell.

According to Dominion, pump hydroelectric storage facilities act as large batteries that store energy in the form of water. During off-peak energy hours, when demand is lower, less expensive energy is used to pump water from a reservoir at a lower altitude up to a reservoir at a higher altitude. The water is stored in the upper reservoir until an on-peak period, or period of high demand. At that point the water is allowed to flow downhill to a power generation facility where it spins turbines. The turbines activate generators that produce electric power that is then delivered to the electric grid.

At this point, we don’t know what county will ultimately be selected for the Southwest Virginia project. But it is no secret that areas like Tazewell and Buchanan counties are still struggling to diversify an economy that was once largely based on coal. A project of this size and scope could certainly make a positive economic development difference for the region.

Once a potential site is identified, all affected or adjacent landowners will be notified, and a series of public meetings will be scheduled to help explain the project to the public, Edwards said.

We believe the project has great potential for the coalfield region. The jobs and tax revenue this development will create could be a potential game changer for the locality that is ultimately selected.

With hope a suitable site can be identified soon.

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