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Written by Brock Ramey, North American Power Research Manager for Industrial Info (Sugar Land, Texas)--This week, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson signed and finalized the agency's boiler Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), formerly known as the Utility Boiler MACT. The much-awaited regulation has faced a flurry of more than 900,000 public comments. The agency has done its due diligence and reviewed all the comments over the past nine months. The regulation was due in November, but was not formalized until Wednesday, December 21.
Certain changes have been made from the proposed to the amended regulation. Facilities now have until 2015 to become compliant with the new regulation. Does this mean that the expected shuttering, mothballing and retirement of coal-fired generation units will be delayed? Absolutely not. We are going to see a significant number of retirements over the next five to 10 years because of the agency's recently released multiple emissions regulations.
Currently, Industrial Info is tracking more than 38 gigawatts of retirements planned to occur between now and 2015. The amendments to the proposed regulations will effect some, but definitely not all of these retirements. Currently, estimates regarding the amount power of lost because of all of the EPA regulations range from between 45 gigawatts (GW) to 80 GW. However, until the regulations are completely firmed up, a more definite estimate cannot be obtained.
One of the most important differences is that the regulation has changed from regulating total particulates to only filterable particulates. The only non-filterable particulate that will be regulated is selenium. Also, the agency made clarifications about which oil-fired units (seasonal, continuously operated, etc.) will be affected.
The EPA has also given owners the choice to either continuously monitor or perform quarterly tests on facilities. Average mercury emissions can be calculated using 90-day period of time, rather than originally proposed 30-day period. However, if the operators choose the longer time period for measurement, they will be held to a stronger standard of about 1.0lbs/TBtu.
Does this mean the fights and arguments against the regulation will cease? Not at all. Over the past year, Congress has tried and sometimes failed to introduce legislation to stop the Environmental Protection Agency and the Obama administration from bankrupting this country's electrical generation owners. Congress again has additional legislation proposed to combat these regulations, including the "Fair Compliance Act," which extends the compliance dates of the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) and MATS from 2015 to 2017. Other actions that are being pursued include overturning the rule with a Congressional Review Act type of program.
Power generation owners need to be prepared for these upcoming regulations because of the long-term nature of constructing and installing environmental compliance equipment. The typical flue-gas desulfurization unit takes 18 to 24 months to build; the typical selective catalytic reduction unit construction is about 12 to 16 months.
The regulation weighs in at 1,193 pages, and while this means that some time will be needed to take in all of the details of the new regulation, it doesn't appear to have changed very significantly from the proposed utility boiler MACT regulation. While MATS will certainly be blamed for many of the coal-fired plant retirements, some of this will be exaggerated, as many of the facilities would have probably closed anyway because of their age.
What we do know is that more than 168 environmental projects remain on hold for review by the utilities that deal with either CSAPR or the new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. On the flipside, Industrial Info is currently tracking more than 130 environment-related projects throughout the United States that are definitely moving forward, and this number is increasing on a weekly basis.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.
Certain changes have been made from the proposed to the amended regulation. Facilities now have until 2015 to become compliant with the new regulation. Does this mean that the expected shuttering, mothballing and retirement of coal-fired generation units will be delayed? Absolutely not. We are going to see a significant number of retirements over the next five to 10 years because of the agency's recently released multiple emissions regulations.
Currently, Industrial Info is tracking more than 38 gigawatts of retirements planned to occur between now and 2015. The amendments to the proposed regulations will effect some, but definitely not all of these retirements. Currently, estimates regarding the amount power of lost because of all of the EPA regulations range from between 45 gigawatts (GW) to 80 GW. However, until the regulations are completely firmed up, a more definite estimate cannot be obtained.
One of the most important differences is that the regulation has changed from regulating total particulates to only filterable particulates. The only non-filterable particulate that will be regulated is selenium. Also, the agency made clarifications about which oil-fired units (seasonal, continuously operated, etc.) will be affected.
The EPA has also given owners the choice to either continuously monitor or perform quarterly tests on facilities. Average mercury emissions can be calculated using 90-day period of time, rather than originally proposed 30-day period. However, if the operators choose the longer time period for measurement, they will be held to a stronger standard of about 1.0lbs/TBtu.
Does this mean the fights and arguments against the regulation will cease? Not at all. Over the past year, Congress has tried and sometimes failed to introduce legislation to stop the Environmental Protection Agency and the Obama administration from bankrupting this country's electrical generation owners. Congress again has additional legislation proposed to combat these regulations, including the "Fair Compliance Act," which extends the compliance dates of the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) and MATS from 2015 to 2017. Other actions that are being pursued include overturning the rule with a Congressional Review Act type of program.
Power generation owners need to be prepared for these upcoming regulations because of the long-term nature of constructing and installing environmental compliance equipment. The typical flue-gas desulfurization unit takes 18 to 24 months to build; the typical selective catalytic reduction unit construction is about 12 to 16 months.
The regulation weighs in at 1,193 pages, and while this means that some time will be needed to take in all of the details of the new regulation, it doesn't appear to have changed very significantly from the proposed utility boiler MACT regulation. While MATS will certainly be blamed for many of the coal-fired plant retirements, some of this will be exaggerated, as many of the facilities would have probably closed anyway because of their age.
What we do know is that more than 168 environmental projects remain on hold for review by the utilities that deal with either CSAPR or the new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. On the flipside, Industrial Info is currently tracking more than 130 environment-related projects throughout the United States that are definitely moving forward, and this number is increasing on a weekly basis.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.
