After roughly 10 months since breaking ground, a 145-acre dirt field just outside Caledonia’s town limits has taken shape with concrete slabs and partially constructed smokestacks marking the progress of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s New Caledonia Combustion Turbine Plant.
Benny Foshee, senior project manager for TVA, said Friday during a tour with more than 15 city and county leaders that the $800 million project is roughly 25% complete and still on pace to meet its projected May 2028 opening.
Once complete, the site will add roughly 500 megawatts to the grid, or enough to power about 250,000 homes both in the Golden Triangle and across the broader TVA system.
Caledonia Mayor Betty Darnell said she was “pleased” to see Friday how far the site has come since its October groundbreaking.
“We have seen all the dirt they’ve been moving,” Darnell said. “I knew it had to be a lot of work since October, but I had not been there since then. It’s amazing how much they’ve done.”
Foshee said since October, crews have been busy conducting initial dirtwork, foundational concrete setting and rebar work to bring the six-turbine site online.
Combustion turbines are designed to meet peaks in power demand quickly by compressing air, mixing it with fuel and igniting it, which turns turbine blades at the facility and generates electricity, the TVA’s website said.
Foshee said the combustion turbine plant, once online, can shift the 500 megawatts it generates through a line system out to a nearby switchyard, which then funnels out to the broader system wherever it is needed.
That shifted power could also be sent out during inclement weather or during an increased demand season, like during peak times in summer and winter, Foshee said.
“Being that we are a fast start and we are peaker, we can run these units to replace generation from a unit that may be unexpectedly offline or just offline when we hit a bad spell of weather,” Foshee said.
Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill said having that kind of asset for future emergency responses to severe weather conditions will be a great benefit for both Starkville and neighboring cities
“Redundancy and sustainability of our power grid is critical, and … I think that’s very far-sighted that they are doing that and preparing for that,” Spruill said. “… We had potential issues with some brownouts or blackouts when we had the really hard freeze (during Winter Storm Fern). And as we become more and more dependent on air conditioning … I think that’s a great plan for us to be able to retain or to sustain our power grid for our businesses and our residents.”
Foshee said the remaining work on the project includes constructing above-ground piping, turbine stack construction, additional foundation work and replacing old infrastructure like power pipes and wiring from existing infrastructure that was in place when the site previously housed an Enron-owned gas-powered plant.
Enron’s corporate fraud scandal led to the company filing for bankruptcy in 2001; the plant was disassembled in 2007.
Beyond meeting increased demand across TVA’s system, Foshee said the new plant could also be used as an incentive to draw even more industrial development in the Golden Triangle.
Mayor Stephen Jones said he believes the additional grid capacity will only make Columbus a stronger destination for industrial growth.
“It’s really beneficial,” Jones said. “If we don’t have it, (businesses and industries) can’t come. So if they can come, then that means jobs, that means economic growth, that means restaurants, that means people going to the amphitheater. … It’s always great.”
Meryl Fisackerly, Golden Triangle Development LINK CEO, said she expects the additional grid infrastructure to incentivize new industrial projects in Lowndes and Oktibbeha counties.
“When you meet with these companies, what they want and especially depending on their manufacturing process, they’re looking for reliable power,” Fisackerly said. “… They want to know that they’re not going to lose power because if they have a massive machine that uses a lot of power, if it loses power, it is so costly to bring that machine back online. So anything that TVA can do to help reassure the reliability of the power and the consistency of the power (is beneficial).”
Trip Hairston, president for the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors, said he expects the plant to cement future developments and the county as an area for more industrial growth, including other megasites in the county.
“It means a lot for this area and for certainly CINCO and the four other Megasites that (are) here in this area, that’s all on TVA because they were able to certify the direct source of power that will be provided to those sites,” Hairston said. “… And then of course the overall infrastructure that we have naturally, which is the river, and then … just based on this area with the railroad system. We’ve got a really good thing in this area, especially where our industrial park is located. From all those infrastructure things, and power is always one of the big, big questions, and one of the big drivers.”
