Blackstone Energy Transition Partners Commits $1.2 Billion to Build West Virginia’s First Combined-Cycle Natural Gas Power Plant
Blackstone (NYSE: BX), acting through funds affiliated with Blackstone Energy Transition Partners, has announced a landmark $1.2 billion investment to construct Wolf Summit Energy, a fully contracted 600-megawatt greenfield combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power generation facility in Harrison County, West Virginia. The company’s Final Investment Decision (FID), reached last week, provides the financial backing needed to initiate construction, marking a major milestone for the state and the region’s energy future.
The Wolf Summit project represents a transformative development for West Virginia. Once operational, it will become the first-ever combined-cycle natural gas power plant built in the state. This state-of-the-art facility is engineered to deliver high-efficiency, reliable, low-emission power, addressing significant and growing energy needs in the Mid-Atlantic region. Demand is being driven not only by population growth and economic expansion but also by the rapid rise of data centers supporting artificial intelligence (AI) innovation—a sector experiencing unprecedented electricity consumption.
A key long-term beneficiary of Wolf Summit will be Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC), which provides power to cooperatives serving approximately 1.5 million residents across Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. By supplying power directly to ODEC through a fully contracted structure, the project will enhance reliability and affordability for consumers across multiple states while strengthening regional grid stability.
Beyond its energy impact, Wolf Summit is expected to provide a significant boost to local employment and regional economic growth. The project is forecasted to create around 500 construction jobs, supporting skilled labor in West Virginia and stimulating additional economic activity through local procurement, services, and long-term indirect job creation.
Blackstone leaders have emphasized the project’s alignment with the firm’s broader strategy to support the infrastructure underpinning the AI revolution and a rapidly digitizing economy. Bilal Khan, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone, and Mark Zhu, Managing Director, highlighted the central role of power generation in enabling next-generation technologies.
“Helping meet the rising demand for electricity from AI and other areas is among our highest conviction investment themes at Blackstone,” said Khan and Zhu. “We are proud that this project is expected to not only create hundreds of local jobs in West Virginia, but also generate more affordable, efficient and reliable power supply.”
The technical backbone of the Wolf Summit project will be the GE Vernova 7HA.02 gas turbine, one of the most efficient and flexible turbines in the world. Known for delivering high output while maintaining operational agility, the turbine is well-suited to meet the increasingly dynamic needs of power markets such as PJM Interconnection, which serves 65 million people across 13 states and the District of Columbia.
Dave Ross, President & CEO of GE Vernova’s Gas Power business in the Americas, underscored the importance of the technology chosen for the project. “I am excited that the first-ever combined-cycle, natural gas power plant in West Virginia is being built using GE Vernova’s highly efficient and flexible 7HA.02 gas turbine that can provide capacity and energy for the rising AI and industrialization demands in PJM,” Ross said. “We look forward to working closely with Blackstone to complete development and start construction of this important project for the community.”
The State of West Virginia has embraced the announcement as a signal of the region’s expanding role in the national energy landscape. Governor Patrick Morrisey welcomed the investment as a landmark demonstration of the state’s competitiveness and growing relevance in the energy sector.
“West Virginia’s status as a global energy player is only beginning to be realized,” Governor Morrisey said. “Blackstone’s $1.2 billion investment not only signifies its commitment to West Virginia, it highlights our emergence as the leading state in the country for energy growth and investment.”
Blackstone’s investment in Wolf Summit reflects a broader strategic push toward building and modernizing energy infrastructure in support of the digital economy. As the largest data center provider in the world, Blackstone has been expanding across multiple regions to meet evolving power demands fueled by cloud computing, advanced analytics, and AI models that require significant electricity to operate efficiently.
This new commitment builds on Blackstone Energy Transition Partners’ recent portfolio of large-scale natural gas power generation developments in the United States. The firm has previously invested in the Hill Top Energy Center, a 620-megawatt natural gas facility in Western Pennsylvania, and the Potomac Energy Center, a 774-megawatt natural gas power plant located in Loudoun County, Virginia—home to one of the world’s largest data center clusters. Over the past three and a half years, the platform has invested in approximately 1,600 megawatts of new-build power generation capacity, supporting grid reliability while contributing to a more robust and diversified energy mix.
Together, these projects highlight Blackstone’s commitment to delivering reliable, flexible, and strategically located power generation assets that underpin both community needs and the explosive growth of AI-driven industries. With Wolf Summit now moving into the construction phase, West Virginia is poised to play a central role in powering the next era of digital and industrial innovation across the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond.
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