PPL EnergyPlus, the energy marketing subsidiary of PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL), has entered into a contract with Longview Power, LLC, to purchase 300 megawatts of energy and capacity from a new coal-fired generating facility to be built in the PJM Interconnection region, the company announced Wednesday (1/24).

“This contract is consistent with PPL’s strategy to increase the amount of generation we own and manage in our key electricity markets,” said Joe Hopf, president of PPL EnergyPlus. “This also further expands our ability to make power sales in the growing PJM market.”

Terms of the five-year, fixed-price contract, which includes an option to extend at a fixed price for an additional year, were not released. The power purchase, from the new Longview Power facility in Maidsville, W.Va., will begin in January 2012. Construction on the facility is scheduled to begin this month, with commercial operation expected in the spring of 2011.

The Longview facility is being developed on a site about 70 miles south of Pittsburgh by GenPower Holdings, L.P., which is jointly owned by GenPower, LLC, and First Reserve Corporation. The facility is a 695-megawatt supercritical pulverized coal-fired generating unit. All required permits have been granted or have been approved pending public comment.

PPL Corporation, headquartered in Allentown, Pa., controls more than 11,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to more than 5 million customers in Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom and Latin America.