Progress Energy Carolinas is planning to permanently shut down three coal-fired power plant units near Goldsboro in North Carolina and seek state regulatory approval to build a new, state-of-the-art natural gas-fuelled combined cycle facility at the same site.
If it goes ahead as proposed, the new plant will increase the capacity of the plant by about 550 MWe while reducing overall emissions, including those of carbon dioxide. The additional generating capacity is needed to meet the demands of a growing customer service area and to provide for additional flexibility.
The company has filed for a 'certificate of public convenience and necessity' from the North Carolina Utilities Commission, under legislation signed into law in July. The petition seeks approval to build a 950 MW combined cycle natural gas plant that will replace the existing 397 MW of coal-fired generation at the H.F. Lee plant in Wayne County. The project represents a total investment of about $900 million and is expected to be in service in early 2013, with the anticipated creation of up to 500 construction jobs over the 24 month building process.
The near term operational date has been set to ensure compliance with the North Carolina Clean Smokestacks Act, which establishes more stringent emission-reduction targets from 2013. In addition to an estimated 60 percent reduction in the facility's carbon dioxide emissions rate, the new units will decrease the facility's emissions rates for mercury by 100 percent, SOx by nearly 100 percent and NOx by more than 95 percent.
"This is an important milestone for our company and for our state," said Lloyd Yates, president and CEO of Progress Energy Carolinas. "The Leep plant has been producing electricity reliably and cost-effectively for our customers for more than 50 years, but as emission targets continue to change, and as legislation to reduce carbon emissions appears likely, we believe in this case, it's in the best interest of our customers to invest in advanced-design, cleaner-burning generation for the future. "Coal-fuelled power will continue to be vital to our ability to meet customer needs reliably and affordably in future years," Yates said. "We have already invested more than $1.3 billion in clean air equipment at our largest units, and we have reduced emissions dramatically. Our objective is to maintain the right balance of resources - nuclear, natural gas, coal, hydroelectric, solar, biomass and energy efficiency - to make our company and state more energy independent and to minimise the risk of customer price spikes due to volatility in cost or supply of any single fuel source."
The three coal units at Lee were built in 1951, 1952 and 1962, on the Neuse River west of Goldsboro. In 2000, the company built four combustion turbine units (dual-fuelled by natural gas nd oil) at a site next to the Lee plant, called the Wayne County Energy Complex. Earlier this year, a fifth combustion turbine was added at Wayne County. Those units are used primarily as peaking plants. The existing Wayne County site is large enough to accommodate the additional gas-fuelled generation but the project will include the building and enhancement of transmission facilities at the site needed. Unlike the existing gas-fired units at Wayne County, the new units will be operated in combined cycle as "intermediate" duty plants. A new natural gas pipeline will also have to be built., serving a second purpose of extending large-volume gas supply more deeply into Eastern North Carolina. Future expansion of the gas capacity could also be a catalyst for growth and economic development, as industries look to locate where natural gas is available. The pipeline plan has not yet been completed.
"This is the best of both worlds," Yates said. "Advanced technology that brings cleaner air in about three years, and an extension of the gas infrastructure to attract and retain business and industry to create jobs and economic growth for many years to come."
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