NRG Completes Four Coal-to-Natural Gas Conversion Projects

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--NRG Energy Incorporated (NYSE:NRG) (Princeton, New Jersey) on Monday announced the completion of four coal-to-natural gas conversions at power plants across the U.S.

Projects completed include:

• The conversion of a 540-megwatt (MW) unit at the Big Cajun Generating II Station near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
• The conversion of three units at the Joliet Generating Station near Chicago for a total of 1,326 MW. The project started earlier this year and was completed this summer.
• The conversion of four units at the Shawville Generating Station in Pennsylvania for a total of 590 MW. This project started in mid-2017, and the units are in the final commissioning stage.
• The conversion of three units at the New Castle Generating Station outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for a total of 325 MW. This project began in late 2015 and was completed in spring of this year.

In a press release regarding the project completions, NRG stated that the conversions would reduce the carbon footprints of the plants by more than 80%.

Another NRG conversion project, the 680-MW conversion of the Avon Lake Power Lake station in Ohio, remains in the early planning stages. For additional information, see August 13, 2013, article - NRG Draws Kudos, Criticism for Plans to Repower Coal Plants with Natural Gas.

The conversions come as several coal-fired plants across the U.S. are forced to face similar projects, pollution control installations, or retirement in the face of regulations by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the form of the Clean Power Plan and Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rules. The Clean Power Plan aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32% from 2005 levels within 25 years. States are required to submit individual plans on how to achieve this. The regulation was halted in February of this year by the U.S. Supreme Court, as state challenges against the statute are considered.

After challenges in court, the MATS rule was upheld by the Supreme Court in March of this year and will come into effect next year. The rule places numerical limits on the amount of mercury and other toxic air pollutants released by coal-fired power plants.

For details on how these and other regulations are affecting the U.S. Power Industry, subscribe to Industrial Info's 2017 North American Power Industry Outlook.

Industrial Info is tracking more than $320 million of active natural gas fuel conversion projects in the U.S. Among the largest of these is the $105 million coal-to-natural gas conversion of PacifiCorp's (Portland, Oregon) units 1 through 3 at the Hunter Power Station in Castle Dale, Utah. The project remains in the early planning stages, with plans to kick off in 2020. The Perry Group Limited (Wadsworth, Ohio) is performing engineering work on the project.

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