Officers’ retaliation lawsuit against Jackson Township settled

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Our Opinion: Intensify search for missing person Andy Walgo

<p>ASYLUM TWP. &#8212; Panda Power Funds&#8217; Liberty Power Plant &#8212; which will bring 70 jobs to the Wyalusing area &#8212; is expected to be complete and fully operational by next spring.</p><p>The plant, which has been under construction since August 2013, is officially in its &#8220;cold commissioning&#8221; phase, according to Project Manager John Coleman.</p><p>Coleman said this particular phase represents the completion of the construction phase, and Gemma Power Systems workers will soon be turning the plant systems over to the commissioning group to ensure they are operating properly.</p><p>Gemma is responsible for the engineering and procurement for the balance of the plant and the installation, construction and commissioning of the facility.</p><p>Two Siemens Energy H-class gas turbines &#8212; the world&#8217;s first-generation technology to achieve operating efficiencies of 60 percent &#8212; have been put into place and will be systematically tested and synced with around 1,000 systems needed to operate the plant before becoming fully operational in the spring.</p><p>&#8220;We have roughly 1,000 different systems put into building a single plant, which all vary in complexity. There&#8217;s a lot of moving parts that need to work in unison,&#8221; Coleman said. &#8220;We expect to be online by March 2016, which is what we originally anticipated.&#8221;</p><p>According to Coleman, the first turbine will be &#8220;fired&#8221; at the start of October for initial testing.</p><p>&#8220;We test the combustion chambers, fill it with gas and test the igniters &#8212; it&#8217;s a lot of fine tuning work where we test it at full speed/low load, full speed/medium load and so forth,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Coleman said following the fire testing of the first turbine in October, it is scheduled to be operational in December. He said the second turbine will fire for testing in November and launched in March when the plant is expected to be fully operational.</p><p>Coleman said he does not foresee any problematic issues in firing the turbines and getting them online. Bill Pentak, vice president of investor relations and public affairs at Panda Power Funds, said the construction workers and facility staff at the Liberty Power Plant have worked on many plants of such magnitude in the past and do an exceptional job with very few errors. Pentak said March is just around the corner, but all operations are being done according to schedule.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re getting close to the end, so it&#8217;s extremely busy,&#8221; added Pentak. &#8220;We&#8217;re excited to see the plant go online.&#8221;</p><p>The Liberty plant, situated on a 33-acre site just outside of Wysox, is still anticipated to contribute up to $5.9 billion to the area economy over the construction phase and first 10 years of operation.</p><p>The plant created roughly 500 jobs during that construction phase, but Coleman said employee numbers will soon begin to decrease as the plant moves beyond the construction and commissioning phases toward full completion. There will then be roughly 25 direct jobs to operate the plant and 45 indirect jobs to support the facility.</p><p>According to Pentak, the Liberty plant will operate between 824 and 829 megawatts, depending on the price of electrical power.</p><p>&#8220;The supply and demand rises and falls&#8212;it&#8217;s never static,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Nevertheless, this facility will ensure stability of the electric grid and the supply of power, which we&#8217;re certain will lead to business growth in the region because all businesses need a dependable supply of power. This plant provides that.&#8221;</p><p>Based on the state&#8217;s electrical consumption, Pentak said this facility will be generating enough power to supply up to one million homes using natural gas.</p><p>&#8220;We all know natural gas is cleaner than coal power, so this is an extremely efficient facility,&#8221; he said.</p><p>The plant will be cooled with air rather than water, which means no water will be drawn from or discharged into the neighboring Susquehanna River. This is said to eliminate potential impacts to sensitive species in the watershed.</p><p>Panda Power and Gemma have minimized sound emanating from the facility using special blade designs, low-output motors and building enclosures.</p><p>A similar plant called &#8220;Patriot&#8221; is being built in Lycoming County, which is also owned by Panda Power Funds. The Liberty plant is scheduled for completion in early 2016.</p><p>Barry Nicholls, senior vice president of Siemens Energy&#8217;s Power System Sales, said the turbines, generators, computer programming and engineering designs for the Liberty Power Plant were all built and assembled in the U.S. along the East Coast.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_liberty11.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The Panda Power Funds sign, which hangs at the entrance of the Liberty plant site, has welcomed roughly 500 workers since the start of construction in 2013. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_liberty11.jpg</photo0><caption0>The Panda Power Funds sign, which hangs at the entrance of the Liberty plant site, has welcomed roughly 500 workers since the start of construction in 2013. </caption0><photoCredit0>Cain Chamberlin | Rocket-Courier </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_liberty21.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The Panda Power Funds Liberty Power Plant in Asylum Township, which is expected to be complete and fully operational by spring 2016. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_liberty21.jpg</photo1><caption1>The Panda Power Funds Liberty Power Plant in Asylum Township, which is expected to be complete and fully operational by spring 2016. </caption1><photoCredit1>Cain Chamberlin | Rocket-Courier </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Bradford County facility will generate 70 jobs near Wyalusing</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Cain Chamberlin</p><p>Rocket-Courier</p></bylineMeta></div>

Panda Power Funds’ Liberty Power Plant, set for a spring opening, will bring 70 jobs to region