LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Representatives from Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities broke ground Wednesday on Mill Creek 5, a new natural gas combined-cycle generating unit. It will be the utility companies’ most efficient and advanced unit.

What You Need To Know

  •  Construction has begun on LG&E and KU's new natural gas combined-cycle generating unit

  •  The unit, Mill Creek 5, is more sustainable than coal-fired units

  •  It is expected to power customers' homes and businesses by 2027

Mill Creek 5 will be a 640-megawatt natural gas combined-cycle generating unit that will power more than 500,000 homes. This will be LG&E and KU’s second unit of its kind.

“The cutting-edge technology will produce around-the-clock electricity through a gas turbine and a steam turbine which utilizes steam generated from the exhaust heat from the gas combustion process,” said Lonnie Bellar, senior vice president of engineering and construction for the PPL Corporation.

Natural gas combined-cycle generating units are more sustainable than coal-fired ones.

“Just the very nature of transitioning from a coal-burning unit like the ones here at Mill Creek to the natural gas combined-cycle unit that we’re constructing eliminates 65% of the carbon footprint of that number of megawatts,” said David Tummonds, senior director of project engineering for LG&E and KU.

The new generating unit is expected to power customers’ homes and businesses by 2027. This is part of the utilities’ goal to have net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

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