HOMER CITY, Pa. — More than 1,800 tradespeople are now working on the Homer City Energy Campus, the natural gas plant rising on the site of Pennsylvania’s largest former coal-fired station, the developer said in a Labor Day week announcement — a figure that has nearly doubled since March.
Homer City Generation LP said Sept. 4 that its direct-hire craft workforce has passed 1,800, up from the 1,000-worker milestone the company and contractor Kiewit Power Constructors Co. announced March 26. About 95 percent of those workers are local, the company said, and more than 135 are apprentices. It expects roughly 2,000 workers by year’s end.
The company’s own footnotes narrow both figures: the count excludes contractors, and “local” means dispatched from the union halls with jurisdiction over the project.
The Indiana County project matters well beyond the county line: it is the largest gas-fired plant under construction in the country, built to serve a 3,200-acre artificial intelligence data center campus, and it has become the test case for how Pennsylvania handles the data center buildout now being pitched in counties across the state.
“The skill, professionalism and dedication demonstrated by these men and women are the bedrock of this project’s success,” CEO Corey Hessen said in the announcement, adding that the site has recorded zero OSHA-recordable incidents to date.
Nine trade unions are on site — boilermakers, carpenters, electricians, ironworkers, laborers, millwrights, operators, pipefitters and teamsters. Shawn Steffee of Boilermakers Local 154 said in the same release that “for years, our local didn’t take in a single apprentice because the work simply wasn’t here.”
The hiring numbers come from the company, and no independent payroll count is public. The state Department of Environmental Protection’s air quality plan approval 32-00457A, issued Nov. 18, 2025, authorizes seven combined-cycle combustion turbines plus up to 10 simple-cycle aeroderivative units at 1750 Power Plant Road. The company puts the campus at 4.4 gigawatts; some coverage puts it at 4.5. It has said first power is targeted for early 2028, and that the plant will also supply the local grid.
That permit is under appeal on two tracks, both filed Dec. 18. Clean Air Council, PennFuture and the Sierra Club took it to the state Environmental Hearing Board, arguing DEP failed to apply its own environmental justice policy and to weigh the plant’s climate consequences. Separately, 13 young Pennsylvanians appealed the same day, with two more added Dec. 28; on March 23 the board denied Homer City Generation’s motion to consolidate the cases.
“We will not stand by idly while our government greenlights a devastating and illegal toxic data center power plant,” Clean Air Council Executive Director Alex Bomstein said in the group’s appeal announcement. Homer City Generation declined to comment on the appeal, The Allegheny Front reported.
The appellants are funding that case through crowdfunding. WESA reported in July that the groups were seeking $200,000 through the platform WHEN Justice to cover five expert witnesses on air quality, health, climate, and economics, with a target of raising the funds by early September.
Locally, the fight has shifted to secrecy. On Aug. 26, Indiana County commissioners voted unanimously on a motion by Commissioner Sherene Hess to explore an ordinance that would bar county officials from signing nondisclosure agreements with private developers.
Commissioner Bonni Dunlap backed the motion but said she opposes the ordinance because she does not believe it would be enforceable. All three commissioners said they have signed no NDAs.