Kentucky Utilities to Invest in Baghouses on Coal Power Plants

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Research by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Preparation is under way for construction to begin on a multi-million-dollar baghouse project at Kentucky Utilities' (Ghent, Kentucky) 2,044-megawatt, coal-fired Ghent Power Station this spring. The plan is to construct and install four Clyde Bergmann fabric filter baghouses to reduce particulate matter and an activated carbon injection system to reduce mercury emissions.

The Ghent facility includes of four Alstom and Foster Wheeler boilers and four Siemens and General Electric steam turbine generators. The power plant became operational in 1974. All four units already have been equipped with wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) scrubbers, but with the latest requirements from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that significantly pressure plant owners to comply with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), additional emission-control equipment is required. With these rulings, some plant owners are forced to either close down their aging coal plants or switch to cheaper natural gas.

KBR has been selected as the engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) contractor to perform the work. Construction is planned to be in phases, with project completion by 2015.

Kentucky Utilities is also in the process of installing new wet scrubbers and modifying existing ones at its four-unit Mill Creek Power Station (Louisville, Kentucky). The project is supposed to be completed in 2016. Zachry Construction is the EPC contractor selected at this site, and all units already have been equipped with selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system.

Louisville Gas and Electric's (Louisville, Kentucky) one-unit Trimble County Plant (Trimble, Kentucky) also has the exact project scope to construct a Clyde Bergmann baghouse in 2013, but no contractor has been chosen yet.

These major environmental projects are putting financial burden on the company and their customers, especially when they're still evaluating the retirement of the 619-megawatt, coal-fired Cane Run Power Station (Louisville, Kentucky) and the 250-megawatt Green River Site (Central City, Kentucky).

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