NRG adds gas to cut emissions at Massachusetts power plant
Date: 12-May-03
Country: USA
Somerset, which provides enough power for about 200,000 homes, is one of six old, oil-and coal-fired Massachusetts power plants the state wants cleaned up or shut down.
A spokesman at NRG, Pat Brink, told Reuters the company in March started installing a natural gas reburner that will replace up to 20 percent of the heat now produced by coal.
A reburner is placed at the top of the plant's firebox and burns off coal dust residue before it goes up the smoke stack.
Brink said the plan to partially repower Somerset was the first for the six plants to be approved by state environmental regulators.
The company expects to complete the project later this year, well ahead of the October 2006 deadline for a repowering of the plants.
Although Brink said he could not disclose the cost of the project or who was financing it, similar projects at other plants have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
NRG, which is refinancing its debt and selling assets, is a subsidiary of Xcel Energy Inc. (XEL.N) of Minneapolis. Last month, Xcel agreed to hand over NRG to its creditors.
So far, Somerset has not been among the plants NRG is considering selling, according to Brink, but that could change given the company's shaky financial position.
There are two coal-fired units at Somerset - 69 MW unit 5 and 111 MW unit 6 - and two 20 MW kerosene-fired jet engine peaking units.
The Somerset station is in the town of Somerset about 50 miles south of Boston.
The five other plants the state wants cleaned up are: Exelon Corp.'s (EXC.N) Mystic station in Everett; PG&E Corp.'s (PCG.N) Brayton Point in Somerset and Salem Harbor in Salem; Northeast Utilities' (NU.N) Mount Tom Station in Holyoke; and Mirant Corp.'s (MIR.N) Canal Electric in Sandwich.
