Reporting by Paul J. Gough at the Pittsburgh Business Times, with announcements from Homer City Generation and Kiewit.
More than 2,000 skilled tradespeople and contractors are now at work on the Homer City Energy Campus in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. Most of them were hired from inside the state, according to an October 20 announcement from Homer City Generation marking one year since Kiewit Power Constructors arrived on the site.
The project is a natural gas power plant and data center campus on the grounds of the former Homer City coal plant. The developer says that when it is finished it will be the largest gas-fired plant in North America.
What Happened
Kiewit started work in October 2025 as the project's engineering, procurement and construction partner. In its first year the company led demolition and construction across the 3,200-acre site. Vertical construction started in April 2026, when the first new structure went up on the campus, per the October release.
The headcount has climbed every quarter. The project reported 1,000 workers on site in March 2026. By early September it reported more than 1,800, according to a September 4 company release and reporting by Paul J. Gough in the Pittsburgh Business Times. It has now passed 2,000, the number the company had projected for the end of the year.
The Jobs
The September release lays out who is on the job.
- Members of nine local union organizations: boilermakers, carpenters, electricians, ironworkers, laborers, millwrights, operators, pipefitters and teamsters.
- About 95 percent of direct-hire craft workers are local, meaning they were dispatched from the union halls with jurisdiction over the project.
- More than 135 apprentices working on site.
The apprentice number is the one to watch. Those are workers learning a trade on a live power plant build, earning while they learn, and they will carry that experience to the next project in western Pennsylvania. A registered apprentice in the building trades is paid from the first day on the job, and the hours on a site like this one count toward journeyman status.
The longer view is bigger. Homer City Generation expects more than 10,000 direct onsite construction jobs over about five years, covering both the power plant and the data center campus. Once the campus is fully running, the company expects about 1,000 permanent direct and indirect positions in technology, operations and energy infrastructure. Both figures are company projections from the September release.
The company also reported zero OSHA-recordable incidents through early September and said site-readiness milestones were finished ahead of schedule.
The Unions Say It Plainly
The building trades leaders on the project were direct about what it means for their members.
"We cannot hire fast enough," said Shawn Steffee, business agent for Boilermakers Local 154 and president of the South-Central Building Trades, in the September release.
Ben Steinmeyer, business agent for IBEW Local 5, said the project "provides our members with decades' worth of work."
State officials echoed it. Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman called the workforce growth "an exciting and encouraging development." State Rep. Jim Struzzi, who represents the 62nd District, put it this way: "When we partner business with trade unions, the sky is the limit."
What Is Being Built
The plant was announced in April 2025 by Homer City Redevelopment and Kiewit. The plan calls for up to 4.5 gigawatts of generation from seven GE Vernova 7HA.02 gas turbines, with the first turbine deliveries expected in 2026, according to the American Public Power Association's coverage of the announcement.
Initial capital investment was projected to top $10 billion for power infrastructure and site readiness, with data center development adding billions more. Knighthead Capital Management is the lead equity investor. The 2025 announcement put first power production in 2027.
The fuel comes from the region too. In July 2025, Homer City Redevelopment announced an agreement in principle for EQT Corporation, the Pittsburgh natural gas producer, to supply the campus, according to the company's announcement. That ties the plant's long-term operation to gas production and pipeline work in Pennsylvania.
For Indiana County, the scale is hard to miss. The same ground produced electricity for decades. Today it holds more than 2,000 people at work, and the payroll runs through local union halls.
Beyond the Fence Line
The work is reaching past the site. Kiewit's first Kiewit Cares Charity Golf Tournament raised $250,000 for the Indiana County Community Action Program, the Indiana County Endowment and the American Cancer Society of Western Pennsylvania, per the October release.
Corey Hessen, CEO of Homer City Generation, credited the crews for the pace so far. "The skill, professionalism and dedication demonstrated by these men and women are the bedrock of this project's success," he said in September.
What to Watch
- Turbine deliveries and installation through 2026 and into 2027.
- Peak construction headcount as the data center campus work ramps alongside the plant.
- Hiring for the roughly 1,000 permanent positions the company expects once the campus is running.
- Apprentice counts. The 135 figure from September is the pipeline for the region's next build.
Sources
- Homer City Generation, "Homer City Generation Highlights Kiewit's One-Year Anniversary of Being Active on Site as Engineering, Procurement and Construction Partner," Business Wire, October 20, 2026.
- Homer City Generation, "Homer City Energy Campus Workforce Grows to More Than 1,800 Workers, Including Members of 9 Building and Construction Trade Unions," Business Wire, September 4, 2026.
- Paul J. Gough, "More than 1,800 workers building massive natural gas plant in Indiana County," Pittsburgh Business Times via WPXI, September 8, 2026.
- Homer City Redevelopment, "Homer City Redevelopment Reaches 1,000 Workers on Construction Site," Business Wire, March 26, 2026.
- "Companies Unveil Largest Natural Gas Powered Data Center Campus in U.S.," American Public Power Association, April 3, 2025.
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Tips and corrections: amos.snead@positivecurrent.com
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