Overview:

• Proposed PWC budgets allocate $274.2 million for capital projects, $450.1 million for operations in fiscal year 2027.

• Project Aero, the titanium factory to open in 2029 and provide more than 300 high-wage jobs, needs 85 megawatts of power.

• PWC is building and upgrading equipment for Project Aero, which will pay part of the cost.

• A public hearing on PWC’s budget proposals is June 10.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on June 8 to correctly reflect that Fayetteville PWC plans to spend $2.02 billion on capital projects over the next 10 years. An earlier version of this story reported $2.95 billion, which included about $930 million worth of past spending.

The Fayetteville Public Works Commission plans to spend $57.6 million over the next four years to bring electricity to the Project Aero titanium recycling plant to be built in north Fayetteville, according to the utility’s proposed budgets for the upcoming fiscal year. 

The infrastructure to supply Project Aero is among $2.02 billion in projects PWC plans to build over the next 10 years. 

Other large projects in the PWC’s 10-year capital improvement program include two filtration plants to extract PFAS “forever chemicals” from drinking water supplies, expansion of water service to Fayetteville neighborhoods annexed in 2005, solar farms, battery reserves, and the relocation or replacement of utility poles, water lines, sewer lines, and other infrastructure to accommodate street widenings and other road improvements.

The PWC, a government agency and Fayetteville’s city-owned utility, provides electricity, water, and sewer service to more than 300,000 people in and around Fayetteville, PWC General Manager and CEO Timothy Bryant said during a presentation of the agency’s two proposed budgets on May 27. PWC revenues include customer utility payments, grants, and loans.

PWC’s plans for Project Aero and other construction projects are part of the two proposed budget documents—one for capital projects, the other for annual operations—that the utility’s commissioners are considering as they enter the 2027 fiscal year. The fiscal year starts July 1.

PWC’s $2.02 billion capital improvement program is updated annually. It lists $274.2 million of work for fiscal 2027, a 5% increase from a year ago.

PWC’s proposed fiscal 2027 operating budget is $450.1 million, Bryant said, which is down 1.9% from the current year’s $461 million. The budget does not set rate increases for water, sewer, or electrical service, but it incorporates previously approved increases. Prices most recently rose on May 1.

The proposed 2027 operating budget includes a $12.7 million payment to the City of Fayetteville, described as “payment in lieu of taxes,” to reflect what a privately owned electric utility might pay the city in property taxes. This is an increase from $12.1 million in the 2026 fiscal year.

The public can weigh in on PWC’s proposed budgets during a hearing June 10 at 8:30 a.m. Members of the public may submit written comments about the proposed budgets via a form on the PWC’s website, and via email to PWCBoard@FayPWC.com. Written comments are due by 5 p.m. on Friday. Copies of the proposed budget documents are also online.

The commissioners may vote to approve the budgets following the hearing.

Batteries on May 2, 2024, store electricity at the Community Solar/Battery Storage Project that the Fayetteville Public Works Commission operates on the east side of Fayetteville near Eastover. This is adjacent to the PWC’s natural gas powered Butler-Warner Generation Plant. Credit: Paul Woolverton / CityView

Other Big Projects

The 10-year plan lists numerous infrastructure projects.

Some of these:

  • $158.7 million to install filter plants at the PWC’s two water treatment plants to remove PFAS from the community’s drinking water. This year’s allocation is $24.8 million. The project is to be finished in 2029.

  • $449.6 million to extend water and sewer service to parts of western Fayetteville that were annexed in 2005. Of that, $26.3 million is to be spent in the 2027 fiscal year. Construction for parts of this began in 2009. It’s scheduled to be finished in 2037. This does not include some other annexation-related projects.

  • $184.3 million through 2036 to move or replace electrical, water, and sewer infrastructure to accommodate road widenings, median construction, and other roadwork by the N.C. Department of Transportation. This includes $12.1 million in the 2027 fiscal year. The work has already begun.

  • $32 million to build two solar farms to generate 8.5 megawatts of electricity, plus battery reserves at another solar farm to store 5 megawatts. These would be built in the 2027 fiscal year.

Project Aero to Partly Pay for Infrastructure

Plans for the Project Aero titanium recycling plant became public in May 2024. The company, also listed as American Titanium Metal LLC, expects the plant to be “fully operational in 2029,” Robert Van Geons, president of the Fayetteville Cumberland Economic Development Corporation, told CityView. The agency helped bring Project Aero to Cumberland County.

The company promised to build a 500,000-square-foot, $868 million plant and employ 304 people with an average wage of $123,476.

The state is offering Project Aero a grant of up to $8 million to build the plant. The Fayetteville City Council and the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners promised to buy land and to each pay $535,000 for water and sewer infrastructure for it. They also offered property tax rebates to run for 20 years.

The plant is to be built near the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant, which Goodyear has said will close in 2027.

Project Aero needs 85 megawatts of electricity, PWC’s capital improvement program document says. For comparison, PWC supplies 228 megawatts on average to about 86,500 homes, businesses, industries, and other customers. Two data centers recently proposed for the Fayetteville area have been listed at 200 and 225 megawatts.

To supply Project Aero’s power needs, the PWC needs to install $57.6 million in infrastructure, its capital improvement program says. In particular:

  • $15.32 million spread across the next four years for an electrical substation to serve the plant. Project Aero is to pay for this in advance or during construction of the substation, PWC said. The substation is to go to bid in fiscal 2027 and be online in fiscal 2029.

  • $20 million over the next two years to rebuild 11.7 miles of power lines to accommodate the projected electrical load of the titanium plant.

  • $22.24 million over the next three years to build a new power station, called a point-of-delivery, to connect the PWC’s electric grid to the Duke Energy Progress grid. The PWC has three connections and plans to build two more. The PWC buys most of its electricity from Duke Energy Progress.

All PWC’s electricity customers benefit from the upgraded power lines and from the new connection to Duke’s grid, so Project Aero will not be billed for those projects, PWC said.

Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.

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Paul Woolverton is CityView's senior reporter, covering courts, local politics, and Cumberland County affairs. He joined CityView from The Fayetteville Observer, where he worked for more than 30 years.