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The Huntley Station, long criticized by environmentalists as one of the dirtiest power plants in the United States, is poised for a $1.5 billion upgrade that would build 750 megawatts of generating capacity using clean coal technology that would sharply reduce its harmful emissions.
NRG Energy said Wednesday it is proposing to build new generating capacity at the Huntley Station in the Town of Tonawanda that would use a technology that reduces harmful emissions by converting coal into a cleaner-burning gas.
The Huntley Station upgrade, part of a $16 billion nationwide investment program to build or upgrade 17 power plants across the country, would be targeted to come into service in either 2013 or 2014, NRG said.
Those new units, which would have the capacity to provide power to roughly 750,000 homes, would be able to generate slightly more power than its current units can.
Top officials from NRG Energy, the Minneapolis-based company that owns the Huntley Station, are scheduled to formally announce the planned investment in the Town of Tonawanda power plant during a news conference this morning.
"This is a very long-term program," said David Crane, NRG's president and chief executive officer, during a conference call. "We're enhancing and regenerating our existing asset base."
Union officials hailed the proposal as a sign of NRG's commitment to the Huntley Station and a potential source of hundreds of construction jobs in the coming years. "This announcement is great news for our membership and our local economy, which is hungry for high-value employment," said Kevin Long, an official at Local 97 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union.
The announcement comes 11/2 years after NRG and state officials reached a settlement to reduce the plant's sulfur dioxide emissions by 87 percent and nitrogen oxide emissions by 81 percent over the next eight years. State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer had sued NRG in 2002 seeking improved pollution controls.
Under that settlement, NRG agreed to shut down the four oldest - and least efficient - units at the six-unit Huntley Station. The retirement of the first two of those units, which have a combined capacity to generate 60 megawatts of electricity, was approved by the state Public Service Commission in April. The other two units scheduled to be retired will be shut down later.
State officials charged that, before the 2005 agreement, NRG's Huntley and Dunkirk plants accounted for more than 21 percent of the nitrogen oxide emitted by New York's power plants and 38 percent of the sulfur dioxide. Nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide are components in acid rain.
The remaining units at the Huntley Station switched to low-sulfur coal to meet the early stages of the emission-reduction plan. NRG's Dunkirk Station also is switching to low-sulfur coal.
The new units that would be built at the Huntley Station would use a generating technology known as Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle. That process feeds coal into a gasification unit, where heat and pressure are used to convert the coal into combustible gas. That gas then is cleaned to remove sulfur and other contaminants before it is burned in a turbine, which then spins a generator.
In contrast, conventional "steam cycle" power plants use coal that is pulverized to a fine powder and then burned. That heat then is used to produce steam, which spins a turbine to generate electricity.
Crane said the "ambitious" plan to add 10,500 megawatts of new generating capacity over the next decade is based on a tightening of electricity supplies in NRG's markets, coupled with higher prices for natural gas that are pushing up costs at facilities that use that fuel.
While upstate power supplies are expected to be adequate for the near future, the demand for electricity statewide is growing by about 1.2 percent a year, said Ken Klapp, a spokesman for the New York Independent System Operator, which manages the state's power grid.
Power supplies are tightest in the New York City area, but limited power line capacity linking the southeastern portion of the state with upstate makes it difficult to transmit additional electricity from upstate to relieve the power crunch downstate.
"We welcome additional megawatts," Klapp said.
New clean coal generating capacity also would help reduce the state's dependence on natural gas, which currently is used to produce about 22 percent of New York's electricity. Natural gas was a popular fuel source for power plants in the 1990s, when prices were low, but alternative sources have regained appeal as gas prices spiked over the last two years.
"It has the potential for getting us off the gas kick," Klapp said.
Environmental concerns, fueled by efforts from state and federal regulators to reduce nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions, also are fueling the push toward adding clean coal technology, Crane said.
The possibility that Congress could take steps to curb emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that causes global warming, could further make clean coal technology more viable, Crane said.
The new generating units proposed for the Huntley Station would have the capability of capturing carbon dioxide emissions, which then could be stored in depleted oil fields, coal beds or other underground caverns, Crane said.
"The technology that NRG is committing to this plant design strikes a terrific balance between our need for electricity and our concern for the environment," said Philip Wilcox, IBEW Local 97's political chairman, who has been active in power issues throughout the region.
NRG said it wants to have an average of about 70 percent of each new plant's capacity already spoken for through long-term contracts before it proceeds with construction. "Each project will be required to stand on its own," said Robert Flexon, NRG's executive vice president and chief executive officer.
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