Xcel Subsidiary Plans Environmental Upgrades at 2,190-Megawatt Minnesota Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Northern States Power Company (Minneapolis, Minnesota), a subsidiary of Xcel Energy Incorporated (NYSE:XEL) (Minneapolis, Minnesota), is expecting approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission by the end of this year on its proposal to install emissions-control equipment at the Sherburne County Power Station by 2012.

The 2,190-megawatt power plant, located in Becker, Sherburne County, is the largest coal-fired facility in Minnesota. It is equipped with three Combustion Engineering/Alstom (EPA:ALO) (Levallois-Perret, France) tangential-fired dry bottom boilers and three General Electric (NYSE:GE) (Fairfield, Connecticut) steam turbine/generators.

All three units have been equipped with low NOx burners and overfired-air systems. Units 1 and 2 already have wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) scrubbers, and Unit 3 has a dry scrubber.

Xcel Energy proposes to replace the existing FGD units for Units 1 and 2 with dry scrubbers. Preliminary design and engineering is set to begin in 2009. Construction is scheduled for 2010 with completion expected by 2012. Currently there are no plans to upgrade the Unit 3 scrubber; however, a carbon sorbent injection system to reduce mercury emissions is scheduled to be installed in 2009. Selective catalytic reduction units were also proposed to be installed by 2014 after the scrubbers. Sargent & Lundy LLC (Chicago, Illinois) is proving engineering services.

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