North Carolina: Part Five of Coal-Fired Profiles of Nine States Suing EPA Over Clean Power Plan

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--North Carolina is one of nine states involved in a lawsuit opposing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Power Plan. Industrial Info is looking at these states in more detail.

For more information, see July 10, 2014, article - Nine States Join Lawsuit Opposing EPA Carbon Rules.

North Carolina has 21 active facilities that use coal as their primary fuel. Thirteen of these facilities are power plants (including the University of North Carolina Cogen); the others include two R J Reynolds Tobacco Company (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) factories, a brewery, two paper and pulp mills, a chemical processing plant, a fertilizer plant and a livestock feed plant.

North Carolina ranks 38th in total energy consumption per capita among U.S. states, with 255 million British thermal units (Btu). Coal's share of electricity generation was about 50% for many years prior to the natural gas price drop, which started in 2008, and led to natural gas-fired electricity production doubling in North Carolina between 2010 and 2012. North Carolina now gets 38% of its electricity from coal-fired generation.

The EPA Clean Power Plan calls for North Carolina to reduce its carbon emissions by 40%. This appears to be a very aggressive target since the national average reduction called for by the plan is 30%--and North Carolina's 38% coal-fired electricity generation is 1% below the national average.

Below are the operational coal-fired power plants in North Carolina. Click the link for each plant to view the plant profile, including unit, boiler and project information:

• Southport Cogen; owned by Capital Power USA; 108-MW capacity; first operational in 1987.
• Roxboro Cogen; owned by Capital Power USA; 60-MW capacity; first operational in 1987.
• Cliffside Steam Station; owned by Duke Energy Carolinas LLC, a subsidiary of Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) (Charlotte, North Carolina); 805-MW capacity; first operational in 1940.
• Marshall Power Station; owned by Duke Energy Carolinas LLC; 2,000-MW capacity; first operational in 1965.
• Buck Generating Station; owned by Duke Energy Carolinas LLC; 473-MW capacity; first operational in 1926.
• Allen Power Station; owned by Duke Energy Carolinas LLC; 1,155-MW capacity; first operational in 1957.
• Belews Creek Power Station; owned by Duke Energy Carolinas LLC; 2,160-MW capacity; first operational in 1974.
• Roxboro Power Station; owned by Duke Energy Progress, a subsidiary of Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) (Charlotte, North Carolina); 2,574.6-MW capacity; first operational in 1966.
• Mayo Power Station; owned by Duke Energy Progress; 735.8-MW capacity; first operational in 1983.
• Asheville Power Station; owned by Duke Energy Progress; 914.3-MW capacity; first operational in 1964.
• Dwayne Collier Battle Rocky Mount Cogen; owned by Edgecombe Genco LLC; 1,394-MW capacity; first operational in 1991.
• Roanoke Valley Energy Cogen; owned by Westmoreland LG&E Partners; 240-MW capacity; first operational in 1994.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Cogen; owned by University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; 32-MW capacity; first operational in 1930.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration

North Carolina Power's plants are an average 48 years old. This is below the national average and the average age of plants that have been retired in the last three years. North Carolina stopped coal production in the 1950s, yet coal accounted for 38% of North Carolina's net electricity generation in 2013. The coal is now shipped in by rail and truck, primarily from West Virginia and Kentucky. These states will be profiled as part of this ongoing series.

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