The Monroe County Board of Commissioners is pleased to announce that longtime community partner Oglethorpe Power plans to construct over the next five years a new two-unit combined-cycle, natural gas-fired power plant in Monroe County.
The two-unit, approximately 1,200-megawatt plant will be built on roughly 60 acres of a 1,200-acre tract already owned by Oglethorpe Power, just west of I-75, adjacent to the Smarr Energy Facility it operates off Rumble Road. The new plant will represent a capital investment of about $2 billion in Monroe County, including $1.95 billion in personal property and about $50 million in real property. According to Oglethorpe Power’s estimated timeline, permitting applications will be submitted in 2025 with plans to break ground in 2027. The plant is then projected to reach commercial operation in 2029.
In addition to the new facility and its continued operation of the Smarr Energy Facility, Oglethorpe Power remains a committed co-owner of Plant Scherer’s Units 1 and 2, also located in Monroe County. Oglethorpe Power officials say they have no plan to close or release ownership of the company’s existing assets. In addition, Oglethorpe Power donated four acres off Ray Hartley Road to Monroe County Commissioners in October 2022 to serve as the location of the new Smarr fire station.
Monroe County District 2 Commissioner Eddie Rowland, who represents Smarr, said he’s thankful for Oglethorpe Power’s growing investment in Monroe County.
“Monroe County is fortunate to have Oglethorpe Power bring in another large energy facility,” Rowland said. “This project is the answer to a decades-old problem of surviving the reduction of Plant Scherer operations. Our Commission along with our Building Resilient Economies in Coal Communities (BRECC) initiative group have been working with the Development Authority to bring a business to replace revenues provided by Scherer, and this is exactly what we need. Industrial capital investment and sales tax revenue with minimal encumbrances and low school/county infrastructure impact will allow us to continue to improve the services we enjoy at the low price we are accustomed to.”
According to an Oglethorpe Power news release, the new facility will feature state-of-the-art technology, making it one of the highest-performing, lowest-emitting and most efficient natural gas plants in Georgia. According to the release, when complete, the project will create 25 permanent, high-quality jobs as well as about 1,200 temporary construction jobs, increased local revenue during construction, and ongoing tax revenue for schools and county operations. Oglethorpe Power estimates the new plant’s useful life at approximately 35 years. The Monroe County Reporter reported Wednesday that upon completion of a 12-year tax abatement schedule, Oglethorpe Power is projected to pay $3 million or more in property taxes annually on the new plant, subject to the final abatement agreement. Depending on the price of natural gas fuel and how much Oglethorpe Power runs the power plant, the new units could also generate between $3 million to $8 million annually from sales tax on natural gas fuel, according to the Reporter.
The good news about Oglethorpe Power’s expansion in Monroe County comes at the same time Oglethorpe Power also announced plans to build a $360 million simple-cycle combustion turbine unit at an existing facility in Talbot County.
In its news release, Oglethorpe Power President & CEO Mike Smith said of the company’s plant expansions: “We have owned and operated power plants in Monroe and Talbot Counties for many years. Thanks to these good partners and their skilled leadership, we are poised to make bigger investments to help these communities grow and thrive and, at the same time, generate more electricity to meet our members’ increasing energy demands.”
Oglethorpe Power ranks No. 27 in generation among the nation’s largest power producers and is the largest electric cooperative in the U.S. Oglethorpe Power owns and operates a diverse portfolio of nuclear, natural gas, hydro, and coal resources to generate electricity for 38 Georgia EMCs (Electric Membership Cooperatives). Georgia’s EMCs serve 73 percent of the state’s land area, including 157 of 159 counties.
