A PPL Corp. joint venture could acquire more than a quarter of Fell Twp. in its endeavor to build power plants to fuel data centers in Lackawanna County.
Representatives from Invitium Energy LLC, the venture between PPL Corp. and Blackstone Infrastructure, attended a Fell Twp. planning commission meeting Tuesday night to discuss the possibility of developing power plants with on-site data centers in the township. Invitium is under agreement to purchase about 2,800 acres of the township, or nearly 4.4 square miles of the municipality’s 15.27 square miles of land, totaling nearly 29% of the Upvalley community, according to a recording of the meeting provided to The Times-Tribune.
By comparison, the nearby city of Carbondale’s entire landmass is 3.24 square miles, according to U.S. Census data.
“(Invitium) was formed to build new-generation resources in light of the growing demand for power, largely in regards to data centers,” PPL Corp. Senior Vice President–Finance and Treasurer Tadd Henninger said during the meeting.
Tuesday’s meeting introduced the prospect of on-site data centers with the power plants, though Henninger said Invitium would only build the power plants. They are not looking to own, operate or build data centers, he said.
PPL Corp. is the parent company of PPL Electric Utilities, but Henninger stressed that Invitium Energy is only affiliated with PPL Corp. and not its utility company. PPL Corp. attorney Mallory Sweeney and Blackstone’s managing director in its Infrastructure Group, Bryan Hom, joined Henninger at the meeting.
‘Diligence is underway’
Henninger characterized the meeting as informational.
“We don’t have development plans to present to you, but really, the reason why we’re here is we understand that engaging with the community early is extremely important,” he said. “Understanding any feedback and answering your questions this evening, or as we move forward, is an important part of the process, and we want to allow those comments and questions to inform us before we’ve already made decisions and are too far down the path.”
In April and June, using a land holding company, the joint venture entered into memorandums with Dunmore businessman Dominick DeNaples to purchase close to 7,200 acres, or 11.2 square miles, across northern Lackawanna County, spanning Archbald, Carbondale, Carbondale Twp., Fell Twp. and Mayfield, according to tax assessment data for 36 parcels analyzed by The Times-Tribune. The memorandums divide the sites into a west campus billed at nearly 4,860 acres and an east campus with just over 2,200 billed acres.
As of Thursday afternoon, Invitium Energy had not yet approached Archbald, Carbondale, Carbondale Twp. or Mayfield, according to Archbald Borough Manager Dan Markey, Carbondale Mayor Michele Bannon, Carbondale Twp. Treasurer and Secretary Lawrence Catanzaro and Mayfield Mayor Al Chelik.
Invitium does not expect to be able to develop all of the land it has under contract, Henninger said.
“There’s certainly going to be constraints to the ability to develop that, whether that’s environmental issues, topography issues, cut-fill considerations, all of that would inform us of a conclusion,” he said. “The other thing, as we think about having that amount of acreage under contract, we’re obviously considering setbacks, buffers, other considerations with, you know, the surrounding community to be a good community citizen.”
Responding to a question about whether their land purchase is contingent on approval from Fell Twp., Henninger said there are conditions or contingencies that they need to know it is suitable for development.
They do not have a timeline, Henninger said.
“Right now diligence is underway,” he said. “It has been for, I’ll call it, several weeks and/or months on the various parcels of land.”
Invitium is in a very similar diligence stage in other municipalities, and they are evaluating a broader development plan, Henninger said.
‘Build generation’
In April, Invitium filed interconnection requests with grid operator PJM for two natural gas power plants in Lackawanna County: a 1,500-megawatt plant — about the same output as the Lackawanna Energy Center in Jessup — and a 750-megawatt plant. Invitium filed similar requests for two Luzerne County power plants after acquiring land in Jenkins, Plains and Salem townships.
According to PJM data, the 1,500-megawatt plant has a requested in-service date of Jan. 1, 2033, and the 750-megawatt plant’s requested in-service date is Jan. 1, 2034.
Elsewhere in Lackawanna County, limited liability companies tied to Kriger Construction Inc. and its executive leadership propose another gigawatt of natural gas power plants, with a 400-megawatt power plant on Eynon Jermyn Road in Archbald and 600 megawatts of power plants across Bell Mountain above Business Route 6 in Dickson City. Those developments operate as Essential Energy and Dickson City Power One, Two and Three.
The exact locations of Invitium Energy’s power plants are unclear, which Henninger reiterated Tuesday, but the timing of the PJM requests aligns with Invitium’s west campus memorandum that it filed with the Lackawanna County recorder of deeds in April. The east campus memorandum was recorded in June.
The west campus begins in Carbondale Twp. above Business Route 6, lines Carbondale and extends north through Fell Twp. The east campus includes properties spanning from near Aylesworth Park in Archbald north to the Brownell Reservoir in Carbondale Twp., which provides 2 million gallons of drinking water daily to surrounding communities.
Invitium is focused on gas-fired power plants because of access to low-cost Marcellus shale natural gas, but they would also consider other types of generation, Henninger said.
Although Invitium is evaluating whether both data centers and power plants are feasible on the land, they could build power plants for other data centers, he said.
“The benefit of colocation is you’re matching the generation with the demand that is coming from the data center and offsetting that,” he said. “Invitium Energy is looking to build generation. … We are not looking to own or operate or build data centers, so that would be a relationship that we’ve engaged other third parties for.”
Addressing water demands, Henninger said they are evaluating air-cooled power plants and closed-loop data centers to mitigate the amount of water usage. Closed-loop cooling systems recirculate water or another coolant rather than evaporating it off.
“Drying up lakes is not something we need to do,” Henninger said.
A Lackawanna County Department of Planning map depicting Invitium Energy’s land under agreement to purchase in northern Lackawanna County, in addition to the sites of other data center campuses throughout the county. (COURTESY OF LACKAWANNA COUNTY COMMISSIONER BILL GAUGHAN)