CALEDONIA, MS – Courtesy of Braden Simmons and The Commercial Dispatch

A group of officials ceremonially “broke ground” at the New Caledonia Combustion Turbine Plant, where construction is already well underway.

Don Moul, president and CEO for the Tennessee Valley Authority, addressed the crowd: “It’s about generating reliable, affordable power,” Moul said. “ Modern natural gas plants like New Caledonia are vital to our system because they provide the flexibility to meet peak demand and complement our other diverse generating resources.” He went on to say that the 6-turbine, $800 million site will provide roughly 500MW of power to the area grid, which is enough to power 250,000 homes at once. He added that the project is on schedule to meet their May 2028 deadline.

The location was once the site of a gas power plant which was once used by Enron, so some of the needed infrastructure is already in place. TVA Senior Strategic Communicator Julia Wise said that the plant itself will employ about ten permanent workers.

“It’s very exciting and what’s even more exciting is they’ve already broken ground, and we see construction happening in full force,” Lowndes County BOS President Trip Hairston said. “There’s a lot of people out here right now moving dirt. … It’s good to see that things are moving forward. We can talk about things and talk about things. But when you have a ground break and you actually see bulldozers in the background, that’s a really awesome sight.”

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