Five electric utilities in the U.S. and Canada have joined the Electric Power Research Institute to host studies of the impacts of retrofitting carbon capture technology to existing coal-fired power plants.
The five host companies are: Edison Mission Group’s Powerton Station in Pekin, Ill.; Great River Energy’s Coal Creek Station in Underwood North Dakota; Nova Scotia Power’s two units in Lingan, Nova Scotia; Intermountain Power Agency’s Intermountain Generation Station in Delta, Utah; and the bed boiler unit at FirstEnergy's Bay Shore Plant in Oregon, Ohio.
The five studies will be conducted in 2009 and a report for each site will assess the most practical carbon capture efficiency configuration based on site constraints. It will also determine the space required for the technology and the interfaces with existing systems, estimate performance and costs for the PCC plant, and assess the features of each plant that materially affect the cost and feasibility of the retrofit.
In addition to the five host site companies, 15 other companies and organizations - including six from Canada and one from Australia - have joined the project.
Earlier this month, the institute noted that energy efficiency programs in the U.S. could realistically reduce the rate of growth for electricity consumption by 22 percent over the next two decades - if key barriers can be addressed.