PINEVILLE — Plans to construct a coal-fired power plant within Bell County — directly off of U.S. Highway 119 — continue to develop, according to local officials.

If all goes as intended, Bell County officials believe that the region could likely see hundreds of new jobs from the development of the designed power plant.

County officials and representatives from Sky Energy — an independent power development company based out of Houston, Texas — met in Pineville on Thursday to discuss the progress that is currently being made in bringing a new power plant to the area.

Randall A. Bird, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer with Sky Energy, attended Thursday’s meeting and spoke about the proposed “integrated energy center.”

"It's clean coal technology coupled with renewables — bio-mass, solar, wind and natural gas," said Bird, who has over 30 years experience in the electric utility business.

Bell County Judge-Executive Albey Brock explained that utilizing new coal technology in the area is necessary, in order to keep the industry alive and electricity rates down.

“Our electricity rates will go down here and stabilize as a result of us having this power plant in our county,” declared Brock, adding that the plant would help stabilize the county’s unemployment rate as well.

He then wanted to clarify that not all the power will be exported across state lines, as previously reported.

“Some, and a lot of this power will go out of here, but not every single bit of it,” maintained Brock. “However, any excess power will be distributed throughout the grid and will most likely end up out of state — based on where the load demands are.”

He added, “We would be using our coal here and exporting the power. And we would have the jobs here as a result of our exporting of power.”

Brock said there is a definite need, as well as a demand, to have power produced in Bell County — and developers are aware of that fact, he said.

He contended that developers will now “move forward and try to arrange purchase agreements with future customers.”

“Everything is super promising,” Brock added.

He said that a power plant, in his opinion, would have an obvious and immediate positive economic impact on Bell County, and beyond.

“By being able to produce power here and being able to stabilize, not only our coal market but our electrical costs, it would make it to where we would have a competitive advantage over other areas,” Brock said.

He said that industries with high power demands would be attracted to this area, because the power plant would act as a “wholesale provider of electricity.”

Developers estimate the project will cost nearly $2 billion, and believe that construction could begin in a couple of years.

Adam Young is a Staff Writer for the Middlesboro Daily News. He can be contacted by e-mail at ayoung@middlesborodailynews.com.