Cinergy Starts Construction Work on Gibson Power Plant Scrubber as Part of Company-Wide Billion Dollar Emission Reduction Program

---

Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). PSI Energy (Plainfield, Indiana), the Indiana operating company of Cinergy Corporation (NYSE:CIN) (Cincinnati, Ohio), will be adding further pollution controls at its largest power plant (3,340-megawatts) (MW). On May 4, 2004, the company started site preparation construction for a wet forced oxidation flue gas desulfurization (FGD) system, more commonly known as a scrubber (PEC 11002272), on 668 MW coal opposed-fired Unit 3 at the Gibson Power Station (Plant 1012966) located in Owensville, Gibson County, Indiana.

Gibson Station units 4 and 5 already have scrubbers, which control emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and other pollutant issues like opacity. The project will help the company reduce its emissions and comply with impending federal mercury and interstate air quality rules. PSI plans to file a comprehensive mercury, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide emissions reduction plan with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission later this year. The project is in addition to other major environmental equipment construction already underway at Gibson, where investments total approximately $600 million to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions and comply with new ozone rules that go into effect at the end of May. This will bring environmental spending at Gibson to near $700 Million with the possibility of another $250 to 400 million more for future compliance spending.

In order to control Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emissions, Cinergy has engaged in its most ambitious capital construction project ever and will, by this summer, have eight selective catalytic reduction units (SCR's) built and running on five coal generating stations - Gibson (PEC 11001488), 1,384 MW Miami Fort (Plant 1013402) (PEC 10001930) in North Bend, Hamilton County Ohio, 669 MW East Bend (Plant 1018350) (PEC 23000839) in Rabbit Hash, Boone County Kentucky and 1,394 MW Zimmer (Plant 1009921) (PEC 10001803) Moscow, Clermont County, Ohio. A ninth SCR unit is under construction (also at Gibson) and will be in service next year. The total cost for Cinergy's SCR Installations is around $800 million.

Industrialinfo.com recently interviewed James Rogers, CEO of Cinergy. Read about the interview by clicking here: Cinergy Energy Chief James Rogers Speaks His Mind.

Cinergy Corporation consists of two core businesses: regulated operations and energy merchant. Cinergy owns regulated operations in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky that has about 7,000 MW and serves 1.5 million electric customers and about 500,000 gas customers. Cinergy's energy merchant business is a Midwest leader in low-cost generation owning 6,300 megawatts of capacity for a total of around 13,300 MW of generation between the regulated and non-regulated arms.

Click on the following link to view Industrialinfo.com's new 2004 Power Industry Forecast.