Progress Energy Carolinas today announced a plan to permanently shut down three coal-fired power plant units near Goldsboro and seek state regulatory approval to build a new, state-of-the-art natural gas-fueled facility at the site.

As proposed, the new plant will increase the amount of electricity that can be produced at the site by about 550 megawatts (MW), while reducing overall emissions, including carbon dioxide. The additional generating capacity will be used to meet the demands of a growing customer service area and to provide for additional resource flexibility.

The company today filed for a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the N.C. Utilities Commission, under legislation signed into law in July. The petition seeks approval to build a 950-MW combined-cycle natural gas plant that will replace the existing 397 MW of coal-fired generation at the H.F. Lee Plant in Wayne County. The project represents a total investment of about $900 million and is expected to be in service in early 2013. It is expected to create up to 500 construction jobs over the 24-month building process.

The near-term in-service date is needed to ensure compliance with the N.C. Clean Smokestacks Act, which establishes more stringent emission-reduction targets in 2013. In addition to an estimated 60 percent reduction in the facility’s carbon dioxide emission rate, the new units will decrease the facility’s emission rates for mercury by 100 percent, sulfur-dioxides by nearly 100 percent and nitrogen oxides by more than 95 percent.

“This is an important milestone for our company and for our state,” said Lloyd Yates, president and CEO of Progress Energy Carolinas. “The Lee Plant has been producing electricity reliably and cost-effectively for our customers for more than 50 years, but as emission targets continue to change, and as legislation to reduce carbon emissions appears likely, we believe in this case, it’s in the best interest of our customers to invest in advanced-design, cleaner-burning generation for the future.

“Coal-fueled power will continue to be vital to our ability to meet customer needs reliably and affordably in future years,” Yates said. “We have already invested more than $1.3 billion in clean-air equipment at our largest units, and we have reduced emissions dramatically. Our objective is to maintain the right balance of resources – nuclear, natural gas, coal, hydroelectric, solar, biomass and energy efficiency – to make our company and state more energy independent and to minimize the risk of customer price spikes due to volatility in cost or supply of any single fuel source.”

The three Lee Plant coal units were built in 1951, 1952 and 1962. They are located on the Neuse River west of Goldsboro. In 2000, the company built four combustion-turbine units (fueled interchangeably by natural gas or oil) at a site adjacent to the Lee Plant, called the Wayne County Energy Complex. Earlier this year, a fifth combustion turbine was added at Wayne County. Those units are used primarily as peaking plants, to meet increased demand for electricity on the hottest and coldest days of the year.

The existing Wayne County site is large enough to accommodate the additional gas-fueled generation. The project will include the need to build and enhance some electric transmission facilities at the site to move the power where it is needed. Unlike the existing gas-fired units at Wayne County, the new units will be operated in combined cycle. The addition will include three combustion turbines with additional equipment added to recover exhaust heat to generate steam. The steam is used to generate additional electricity with no additional need for fuel. This makes the units highly efficient. Units operating in combined-cycle mode are used as “intermediate” plants, cycling up and down during the day to meet changes in customer electricity demand.

Last month, the N.C. General Assembly approved legislation to facilitate a technology switch of this sort. Senate Bill 1004 established a streamlined certificate process (45 days versus the standard process, which takes six months or more) to enable Progress Energy to shut down the coal units and replace them with natural gas-fueled technology, rather than investing hundreds of millions of dollars in flue gas-desulfurization technology, or scrubbers, on older, less-efficient coal units. The shorter certification period was needed to enable the company to replace the coal-fired plants by 2013, when the stricter statewide emission targets come into effect.

The project also will involve construction of a natural gas pipeline to fuel the new units. The pipeline will provide the additional benefits of extending large-volume gas supply more deeply into Eastern North Carolina. Future expansion of the gas capacity could be a catalyst for growth and economic development, as industries look to locate where natural gas is available. The pipeline plan has not been completed.

“This is the best of both worlds,” Yates said. “Advanced technology that brings cleaner air in about three years, and an extension of the gas infrastructure to attract and retain business and industry to create jobs and economic growth for many years to come.”

There are about 70 employees at the Lee Plant. The company is working to ensure that as many as possible will have jobs at the new facility or opportunities to move to other positions at company facilities.

 “My hope is to learn more about what can be done to help students and families,” Cowell said. “This opportunity will provide a basis to develop initiatives that will assist North Carolinians.”

The tour is presented in conjunction with Generation Engage, a nonpartisan, non-profit organization that empowers young adults with the access and resources they need to become active, engaged participants in their communities.