For immediate release: April 1, 2009 

One of America’s cleanest coal units goes commercial 

Spurlock Station Generating Unit Goes Online 

MAYSVILLE, Ky.─ East Kentucky Power Cooperative today brought one of America’s 

cleanest coal-generating units online at its H.L. Spurlock Station plant. 

The 278-megawatt unit will provide EKPC and the 16 not-for-profit cooperatives served 

by the organization with affordable, reliable electric power for decades to come. At the 

peak of construction up to 700 workers built the $528 million unit, pumping millions of 

dollars in annual payroll into the economy of Mason County and the surrounding region. 

“This is a proud day for East Kentucky Power and the employees at Spurlock Station 

who worked so hard to bring Unit #4 online over the past 33 months,” said CEO Bob 

Marshall. “Building the unit created hundreds of jobs, and it will bring millions of dollars 

in new tax revenue to local and state government. This is an investment in Kentucky’s 

people and our future.” 

The unit is located adjacent to two conventional coal-fired generating units and an 

identical clean-coal unit that went online in 2005. The clean-coal units use a technology 

known as the Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) process, which feeds limestone into the 

boilers, resulting in extremely low emission levels. 

In a CFB unit, coal burns at nearly half the temperature of a traditional unit, producing 80 

percent less nitrogen oxide than a conventional plant. The process removes 98 percent of 

the sulfur dioxide and is also much more efficient than conventional units because fine 

coal particles are re-circulated within the boiler. The clean-coal units are 10 times cleaner 

than conventional units in removing particulate matter. 

In addition to its low emission levels, the unit has the capability to burn renewable fuels 

such as switchgrass. EKPC is part of an innovative four-year project to study using 

switchgrass, which is native to Kentucky, as fuel for its power plants. In December, 

EKPC mixed about 70 tons of processed switchgrass into the coal feedstock of the first 

clean-coal unit built at Spurlock Station. 

This year, EKPC plans to burn up to 400 tons of switchgrass as part of the four-year pilot 

project in which EKPC is partnering with the University of Kentucky’s (UK) College of 

Agriculture and local farmers. 
“We want to find out if switchgrass can be a viable supplemental fuel for our power 

plants,” said Marshall. “Our fleet of power plants now includes two units that could burn 

switchgrass as fuel.” 

EKPC plans to build an identical clean-coal generating unit at J.K. Smith Station located 

in Clark County. The unit must receive final regulatory approvals before construction can 

begin. 

Here are other facts of interest about Spurlock Unit #4: 

• It produces enough electricity to power 140,000 homes. 

• Building the unit pumped more than $20 million annual payroll into Mason 

County and the surrounding region during the past few years. 

• Twenty-four additional permanent jobs have been created at Spurlock Station 

because of the addition of the unit and two new scrubbers, which will soon bring 

total employment at the plant to 207 workers. 

• The unit will provide the state of Kentucky a total of nearly $12 million in 

property taxes during its first 20 years of operation. 

EKPC is a not-for-profit organization providing wholesale electricity to 16 distribution 

cooperatives that serve 500,000 Kentucky homes, farms, businesses and industries across 

87 counties. EKPC provides power through plants located in Mason, Clark and Pulaski 

counties, renewable energy plants in Boone, Laurel, Greenup, Hardin and Pendleton 

counties, along with gas peaking units, hydro power and more than 2,800 miles of

transmission lines. Nearly 8 percent of EKPC’s generating capacity comes from 

renewable sources. Together, EKPC and the member cooperatives are known as 

Kentucky's Touchstone Energy Cooperatives. 

For more information, contact: 

Nick Comer, Public & Media Relations Representative 

Office (general): (859) 744-4812, ext. 450 

Office (direct): (859) 745-9450 

Mobile: (859) 333-8735