Woodbridge Power Plant Breaks Ground

The largest industrial project ever undertaken in Woodbridge broke ground on Wednesday morning in Keasbey in the company of the governor, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-3), and representatives from a number of energy companies. 

The CPV Woodbridge Energy Center will be a 700-megawatt facility that will be fueled by natural gas and produce enough energy to power 700,000 homes in New Jersey. 

Mayor John McCormac said the $845 million project is expected to generate $1 million in tax relief and provide public access to the Woodbridge banks of the Raritan River through the redevelopment of a Brownfields site that has sat vacant for several years.

The construction of the facility will create 500 construction jobs, with an expected payroll of $50 million, according to Doug Egan, Chairman and CEO of Competitive Power Ventures (CPV).

Once running, the plant will be staffed by 25 workers with an expected payroll of $3.5 million, Egan said. 

It is expected to start up in 2016, according to the township. 

It will be built by CPV, with financing from GE, ArcLight Capital Ventures and Toyota Tsusho. An affiliate company of ArcLight will operate the plant, according to the township.

Christie and Sweeney, often portrayed as rivals in media reports, both said that job creation was a nonpartisan issue.

"Jobs aren't Republican or Democrat, they're jobs," Sweeney said.

Energy costs are an issue in New Jersey, as the state relies heavily on out-of-state power sources, Christie said. 

Through the creation of new power plants, those costs will begin to come down, benefiting residents and the state economy, he said.

"These are the things people expect us to get done," Christie said. 

The new plant is  linked to a controversial bill, passed in January 2011, that would partially finance the cost of new power plants in New Jersey using ratepayer subsidies.

The bill was overruled earlier this month by a Supreme Court judge, after a power companies in Pennslyvania filed a lawsuit against it, according to Reuters.