MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Another step towards the completion of the Longview Power pipeline project has been given the green light by the Monongalia County Commission.
The commission unanimously approved a Measuring and Regulation Station easement as part of the project at the behest of Hope Gas during their regular meeting Wednesday. Monongalia County Commissioner Sean Sikora supported the easement, which will allow for gas measurement tools to be placed on county-owned property and will help move forward a project that’s soon to be over five years in the making.
“They’ve been working on this agreement for a while, all sides have been providing valid and good feedback, the last sticking point is some indemnification language,” said Sikora.
The easement will account for the installation of a measuring and regulating station that would be located around an already established pipeline for the Longview Power Plant site. This will support the flow of gas which as part of the partnership with Hope Gas on the project and further support the redevelopment of the plant itself into a combined-cycle gas-fired power plant with a solar array on the grounds. With the pipeline already in the ground, Hope Gas hopes to place measurement tools on the ground to keep the project moving forward.
“What Hope Gas is doing is that there’s an existing pipeline, and they want to install some measuring systems,” said Sikora. “This is (Mon County) Development Authority, county property, so all they’re doing is (saying) they need this agreement in place so that they can put that additional equipment on that property,” he said.
The work on the Longview Power plant renovations began back in 2020 when the West Virginia Public Service Commission approved having Longview Power begin construction by 2025 with an extension approved late last year. When completed, the pipelines will help support the construction of a 1,200-megawatt combined cycle gas-fired facility, which is scheduled to be completed by 2034. While this addition by Hope Gas took a bit longer to work out fine-print details of the easement agreement with the county, the hope is that this will help the Longview Power pipeline project, as well as ones set to be built, to move forward.
“They’re real close, we thought that they would have it, get it work out but there’s just a few more things they want to get and back forward on,” said Sikora. “I feel real confident that they’re going to reach that agreement,” he said.
Granville Mayor Patty Lewis updated the commission on the status on the new University Town Center traffic signals that were put into the ground this year. The lights at the University Town Center intersections between Walmart and the WVU Medicine facility and at the bottom of the hill between Granville Square and Sesame Drive are fully installed, but electrical issues have prevented them from being fully active. According to Lewis, the Town of Granville already reached out to Mon Power for assistance, and they hope to have the traffic signals fully operational by the end of the month.
“We hit a minor hiccup with the Mon Power connection, but they have assured us that as soon as we’re ready for the connection, they will put us to the top of the list,” said Lewis. “As long as the weather holds, I think those traffic signals will be up and running within the month at least,” she said.