New Electric Power Facility Coming To Keasbey Brownfield Site

Efficiency is the word of the day for the new Woodbridge Energy Center, a new power plant coming to Keasbey.

The natural gas-fueled electric generation facility will be located at the former EPEC Polymers site in the Keasbey Redevelopment Zone, an 655-acre area  that is currently undergoing remediation, restoration, and redevelopment.  The zone also includes an area contaminated with low levels of benzo(a)pyrene was trucked from Bound Brook to use as fill-in material and will , giving residents access to the Raritan River for the first time in over a century.

"We are here today because we're done planning, we're working on cleanup, and we actually have something real and major coming to this site," said Caroline Ehrlich, Director of the Woodbridge Redevelopment Agency.

Doug Egan, CEO of Competitive Power Ventures, noted that the 700 megawatt facility would produce enough electricity to power 700,000 homes.  "The Woodbridge Energy Center will bring tremendous benefits to the surrounding area in tax revenue, business revenue, high paying construction jobs, and high paying permanent jobs once the building is operational," said Egan, noting that approximately 500 construction jobs will need to be filled, with 95% of them being sourced locally.  Twenty-five permanent jobs will also be created when the facility is up and running.

" This facility will utilize the most advanced generation technology available today, and it will be one of the nation's cleanest and most efficient power plants, anywhere," said Egan.  "Because it is so efficient, it will reduce New Jersey's dependence on older and less efficient power generating systems, and by displacing those older units, the Woodbridge Energy Center will deliver electricity more cleanly, thereby improving the state's environmental profile."

Greywater - wastewater from household activities - that would normally be going directly into the river will be used to meet the Center's  cooling needs, according to Egan, allowing the center to minimize it's impact on water resources.

Egan went on to note that, according to estimates of an independent study, the plant will save rate payers hundreds of millions of dollars over the time the center is operational.