The Progress Energy $600 million expansion looks to bring more economic growth into Richmond County. Progress Energy currently pays $3 million in local taxes to the community which makes them the largest taxpayer in Richmond County. This expansion will increase the company’s tax contribution by about $2 million.

The Richmond County plant is the utility’s third largest and is currently producing 1,287 megawatts. The plant currently houses five combustion turbines and one combined-cycle unit, all run primarily on natural gas.

County Manager Rick Sago said, Progress Energy paid for upgrades to allow the county to serve the first combined cycle block that they constructed with “settled water,” (the settled water is what Progress Energy paid for.) This water will also be used for the new block.

This site is served with potable (drinking) water and settled water. The potable water upgrades, including a new waterline, 750,000 gallon elevated tank and pump station, were constructed and paid for by the county to serve the original simple cycle facility. The potable water upgrades the county paid for also serve the Pee Dee Electric power plant, Sago went on to say.

The plant also invests in the community in which it is housed. They offer an Employee Giving Campaign which supports the local non-profit organizations and the Energy Neighbor Fund which helps those in need pay their home energy bills.

Since 2006, Progress energy has supplied 300 jobs and more than $90 million in capital investment to Richmond County.

Andy Honeycutt, community relations manager for Progress Energy, congratulated the county officials on the budget that was prepared. “Hopefully we are helping the county achieve its financial goals,” he said.

Rod King, assistant project manager, said they are about 60 percent done with the construction and have about five months of work left to do.

“Richmond County made it available to get the water line in, this was critical,” Honeycutt said.

There are 434 craft workers on the site, and of those, about 83 are local employees and 51 percent of them are from North Carolina and South Carolina.

According to King, so far there have been 750,000 man hours on the construction site without a reportable incident.

“We are very proud to have that amount of hours without someone getting injured,” King said.

The new addition will make eight to 13 more jobs available for Richmond County residents, though the hiring process won’t begin until the end of next year. The plant should be fully operational in July 2011.

Hollie Nivens can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 19 or by e-mailing at hnivens@yourdailyjournal.com.