By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Mar. 19�A unit of Reliant Energy Inc. said Monday it plans to build a $550 million 520 Mw coal-fired electric generating plant in western Pennsylvania.
The existing plant will be retired when the new facility begins commercial operation in 2004. Reliant Energy Seward LLC filed an application with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for an air permit for the project in June 2000, as well as with the East Wheatfield Township for a building permit in February.
Construction of the project, which will take 36 months, will begin after it receives various other state and national permits.
The state of Pennsylvania is providing $400 million in tax exempt bonds over a 3-year period, said Joe Bob Perkins, president of Reliant Energy Wholesale Group. Repayment of the bonds will be made from project profits, not from electricity customers.
Reliant awarded Alstom Power, a unit of France's Alstom Holdings, a $250 million contract to supply a single steam turbine generator set served by two advanced circulating fluidized bed boilers and an emissions control system which includes a selective noncatalytic reduction system to reduce nitrogen emissions and flue gas desulphurization to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions.
Commercial operation of the new plant is scheduled to begin in May 2004 and will more than double Seward's current generating capacity. The existing plant will be retired in October 2003.
Curt Morgan, president, east region, Reliant Energy Wholesale Group, said the technology will allow the use of waste coal as the primary fuel source, providing an opportunity to clean up piles of waste coal, which are abundant in the area. Any coal required to supplement the waste coal is expected to be purchased from the Pennsylvania market, he said.
In the plant's first 15 years, Reliant said more than 40 million tons of coal refuse will be removed from sites in Cambria, Ind., and Somerset counties. Additional sites in other nearby counties also are under consideration. In all, more than 100 million tons of waste coal could be removed during the life of the project, the company said.
