What was once Pennsylvania’s largest operating coal-fired power plant will become a 3,200-acre data center and 4.5-GW natural gas power plant complex by 2027, its developer and EPC contractor announced April 2. 

The Homer City Energy Campus—being developed near Pittsburgh by Homer City Redevelopment LLC, a private investor group, and designed and built by Kiewit Corp.—is set to be North America's largest gas power plant with seven natural gas-fired turbines, the project team said. That is more than double the capacity of the original coal facility, which began operation in 1969 but was decommissioned in 2023 due to economic pressures.

"Kiewit is excited to help advance what is poised to become the nation’s largest natural gas-powered plant," said Dave Flickinger, Kiewit Power Constructors executive vice president. The project will create up to 10,000 direct on-site construction-related jobs and about 1,000 direct and indirect positions in technology, operations and energy infrastructure, according to the project team.

Kiewit will work under a project labor agreement, corporate spokesman Bob Kula told ENR, but no terms were disclosed by story posting time. "We have extensive EPC power experience in Pennsylvania and look forward to working with local union talent to deliver another important project for the state," he said. Shawn Steffee, president of the South Central Pa. Building Trades, said member unions all "are looking for apprentices. We're ready to build out." 

For the planned gas plant, Kiewit Engineering Group Inc. is responsible for design and has been working on its front-end engineering since November, Kula said. The firm had been EPC for flue-gas desulfurization retrofits at the former coal plant units 1 and 2 completed in 2016, he added.

The project's initial capital investment is set to exceed $10 billion for power infrastructure and site readiness, said Homer City Redevelopment, adding that data center construction will add unspecified “billions more,” making the project “the largest such investment in Pennsylvania’s history.” 

The developers did not disclose names of any signed data center clients, and did not respond to a query as to whether Kiewit Corp. is also a financial stakeholder in the project. 

The GE Vernova manufactured turbines will be hydrogen-enabled, with first delivery to begin in 2026, and gas to be sourced from the Marcellus Shale region within the state. The developer was awarded a $5-million state grant to extend a gas line to the plant site. Much of the critical project infrastructure is already in place from the legacy coal plant, including transmission lines connected to the PJM Interconnection and NYISO power grids, as well as substations and water access. 

Startup Set for 2027

Plant construction is expected to start this year, with power production to begin by 2027, said the project team.

More than half of Pennsylvania power is generated by natural gas-fired power plants, with more than three dozen operating. The state is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the U.S., behind Texas, it said. All remaining coal-fired plants in the state are set to be decommissioned or converted to natural gas by 2028, officials have said, despite recent calls by the Trump administration to keep them operating in the U.S.

The plant was acquired by private equity firms in 2017 after then-owner Homer City Generation LP filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Operated by NRG, it was owned previously by General Electric and Edison International. 

Cooling towers and three of four stacks of the former coal fired plant, some more than 1,000 ft tall, were imploded on March 22 with the last one to be demolished this month.

“We have long recognized the unique value inherent in Homer City’s infrastructure and power generation attributes,” Andrew Shannahan, a partner in Investment firm Knighthead Capital Management LLC, which has held stakes in the former plant and will continue to lead project financing, said in a statement.

"Pennsylvania is an energy leader, and a net energy exporter, so It is essential that we need to generate more energy for the state's economy," state Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said related to the Homer City project, but he also noted “a lot of questions that still need to be answered, a lot of permits that need to be received.” Shapiro announced in January his proposed “Lightning” energy program, also integrated in his latest budget plan, which includes tax credits, a new state siting board to speed permitting and a program to cap carbon emissions and lower power costs. It awaits legislative action.

But environmental advocates raise concerns. "We applaud any steps that will support a just transition to a renewable energy economy and support jobs, but other components of the Lightning Plan fall short in protecting public health," says Alison L. Steele, executive director of the Environmental Health Project, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit. "When it comes to energy, there must be a reckoning with how we define 'clean.'” 

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is set to decide later this year whether data centers such as the one projected at the Homer City site can buy power directly from the power plant instead of the regional grid.

The state Public Utility Commission has set an April 24 hearing on issues related to data center impacts on its aging grid and on ratepayer costs.