Reuters reported that North Carolina based Progress Energy planned to shut the 172-megawatt Weatherspoon coal fired plant in North Carolina on October 1.
Weatherspoon is one of dozens of old, small coal power plants in the United States expected to shut over the next several years because it costs less to replace the coal units than upgrade emissions equipment needed to meet increasingly more stringent state and federal environmental rules.
The three units at Weatherspoon in Robeson County entered service between 1949 and 1952. In 2009, Progress said it would modernize its fleet by the end of 2017 to comply with nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions reductions mandated by North Carolina Clean Smokestacks Act of 2002.
To modernize the fleet, Progress planned to build a few natural gas plants upgrade emissions controls at some of its larger coal plants and retire a few of its older, small coal plants including Weatherspoon. In addition to Weatherspoon, Progress said it plans to shut the 600-MW Sutton, 397 MW Lee and 316 MW Cape Fear coal plants by the end of 2013. One megawatt powers about 1,000 homes.
Progress expects a new 625 MW combined-cycle plant at Sutton to enter service at the end of 2013 and a new 920-MW combined-cycle plant at Lee to enter service in January 2013. Progress is not building any new units at Cape Fear or Weatherspoon which will continue to have oil and gas fired peaking plants at their sites.
To help replace the Weatherspoon plant, Progress added a new 600-MW combined-cycle gas unit at the Richmond County plant that entered service over the summer. Last week, Progress renamed the Richmond County plant which is located near the Weatherspoon plant in south central North Carolina as the Sherwood H Smith Jr Energy Complex.
Prior to the construction of the new natural gas plants which cost about USD 2 billion to build and the retirement of the old coal units, about half of Progress generation came from coal and half from nuclear. With the new gas units and coal retirements, Progress said about a third of its fleet would be gas a third coal and a third nuclear.
The North Carolina environmental rules prepared Progress for the proposed federal environmental regulations that some energy experts say could shut between 30,000 and 70,000 MW of coal fired generation in the United States.
Progress spokesman Scott Sutton said all of the coal plants in North Carolina that will continue to run will already have the emissions controls needed to meet proposed federal rules.
Outside of North Carolina, however Progress may have some work to do on its coal fleet.
(Sourced from Reuters)
