10/21/13 Asheville.com news: Duke Power’s Emission Reductions in North Carolina to Cost $1.5 Billion

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Duke Power’s Emission Reductions in North Carolina to Cost

$1.5 Billion

Duke Power will be investing

$1.5 billion to reduce nitrogen

oxide and sulfur dioxide

emissions at its seven coal

plants in North Carolina to

comply with the state’s “Clean

Smokestacks” legislation,

which was signed into law in

June 2002 with Duke Power’s

full support.

The partnership between Duke

Power, environmental

organizations and state regulators and elected officials was honored by the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) with its Clean Air Excellence Award in March 2004. The series of construction

projects Duke Power will undertake to comply with the legislation represents the largest capital project

in North Carolina over the next decade.

Duke Power has completed the selective catalytic reduction or “SCR” project at Belews Creek Steam

Station that will enable the plant to reduce its nitrogen oxide emissions by approximately 80 percent.

The project represents an investment of more than $450 million and had a peak construction work force

of more than 2,000. It was the Triad region’s largest construction project and one of the largest in North

Carolina over the past decade.

Duke Power broke gournd earlier in 2004 on a project that will reduce by

approximately 90 percent the sulfur dioxide emissions at Duke Power’s

Marshall Steam Station. The $400 million Marshall project is one of a

series of environmental retrofits Duke Power is undertaking on its coal-fired

power plants in North Carolina stemming from the passage of the state’s

landmark 2002 clean air legislation.

“Our Belews Creek power plant (pictured above) has been one of the workhorses of the Duke Power

system for almost 30 years and with the completion of the SCR project and other plant upgrades, the

plant will be cleaner than ever,” said Bill Hall, Duke Power’s executive vice president of fossil-hydro

operations. “Belews Creek is one of the nation’s most efficient coal-fueled power plants and is one of the

reasons our rates are 20 percent below the national average and among the lowest in the Southeast."

The Belews Creek SCR project is part of Duke Power’s federal Clean Air Act compliance efforts that will

reduce the company’s nitrogen oxide emissions 75 percent below 1998 levels by the summer of 2004.

Duke Power will invest an additional $1.5 billion to reduce nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions

far below federal limits by 2013 to comply with North Carolina’s Clean Air Plan, which was signed into

law in June 2002 with the company’s full support.

The reductions in sulfur dioxide emissions, the majority of the $1.5 billion investment, will be

accomplished by using “scrubbers” at Duke Power’s Marshall Steam Station in Catawba County,

Belews Creek Steam Station in Stokes County, Cliffside Steam Station Unit 5 in Rutherford County and

Allen Steam Station in Gaston County. These plants and Duke Power’s smaller coal-fueled power
10/21/13 Asheville.com news: Duke Power’s Emission Reductions in North Carolina to Cost $1.5 Billion

www.asheville.com/news/dukepoweremission.html 2/2

plants in North Carolina, located in Eden, Salisbury and north of Charlotte, are expected to also have

advanced technology installed to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions.

Duke Power, a business unit of Duke Energy, is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities and provides

safe, reliable, competitively priced electricity and value-added products and services to more than 2

million customers in North Carolina and South Carolina. In 2004, Duke Power celebrates 100 years of

service. The company operates three nuclear generating stations, eight coal-fired stations, 31

hydroelectric stations and numerous combustion turbine units. Total system generating capability is

approximately 19,900 megawatts. More information about Duke Power is available on the Internet

at:www.duke-energy.com.

(Photos provided by Duke Power)

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