October 27, 2005
News Release 05-20
Brad Peck, Corporate Communications Officer
(509) 377-8247 / 727-2808
RICHLAND, Wash. – Energy Northwest, a Joint Operating Agency of 19 public power organizations in Washington, has selected the Port of Kalama for a proposed 600 megawatt electric power complex slated for initial operation in 2012. The agency’s Executive Board today approved a 50-year lease for an 80-acre industrial site owned by the Port.
The Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) complex will produce its own “synthesis gas” to fuel two, 300-megawatt power plants; one owned by public power interests, the other under private financing and ownership.
Construction of the complex, officially named the Pacific Mountain Energy Center, is expected to draw several hundred workers and create approximately 100 permanent family-wage jobs related to operating and maintaining the facilities. The site provides adequate space for future expansion of the operation to include research and testing of new environmentally friendly energy processes, potentially creating additional jobs.
Regulated emissions from the complex are expected to rival, and potentially outperform, those of a natural gas plant. The clean burning synthesis gas will be produced by gasifying – rather than burning – coal, pet coke (a by-product of crude oil refining), and potentially other carbon-based feed stocks in a fully enclosed process.
Estimated design and procurement cost for the power complex is approximately $1 billion. The costs include $35 million to make the facility compatible with potential future technologies to remove and capture carbon dioxide from the feed stocks. Efforts to develop those technologies include research into permanently sequestering captured carbon dioxide in underground geologic formations, rather than releasing it into the atmosphere.
The Kalama site was chosen from several sites studied in Western Washington. Project Manager Tom Krueger said Kalama was one of the few sites with all the necessary characteristics, including access to the Western Washington power grid. “Kalama offers easy access to the power grid in an area where our operations are likely to help alleviate, rather than compound, transmission congestion. That will be a significant benefit to BPA and the region. The site also offers an attractive mix of adequate space, appropriate industrial zoning, grid access, utility infrastructure, diverse feedstock transportation options, and highly professional Port management,” he said.
Krueger said the next major step will likely be a 20-month process to secure environmental certification of the site by the Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC). “The operating parameters of the proposed complex are all well within industry standards. We’re looking forward to working closely with EFSEC to ensure they have a comprehensive view of the entire proposal and its expected benefits to the region,” he said.
Dan Porter, head of Energy Northwest’s generation project development business sector emphasized Energy Northwest’s ongoing commitment to conservation and renewable energy sources. He points to the agency’s 64-megawatt Nine Canyon Wind Project and White Bluffs Solar Station, both in Southeastern Washington, as evidence of that commitment. “We continue to believe that conservation and renewable energy solutions must be at the core of our collective efforts to meet future demand for electricity. However, we don’t see those avenues as sufficient, by themselves, to meet any reasonable estimates of future demand. In reality, we believe even modest economic growth in the region over the next decade – and the resulting increased demand for electricity – will far exceed the capacity of conservation and full-on development of renewable energy projects. That is particularly apparent when you consider that wind power projects, the most prominent new source of renewable energy today, only produces electricity about one-third of the time,” he said.
Porter noted that, “As a public power agency we are charged with providing economically and environmentally responsible options to our members. This IGCC project has the potential to let us use abundant domestic petroleum coke, coal and potentially other solid fuel feed stocks to produce large quantities of electricity in an environmentally responsible manner. We also have a strong desire to help move carbon dioxide capture and sequestration from the research world to commercial application. Our alliance with the Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership (BSCSP) – which is pursuing such a program – is further evidence of our simultaneous commitment to economics and the environment.”
Krueger noted that some people have tried to label IGCC as nothing more than a coal plant under a new name. “They would be mistaken. The differences are real and meaningful. IGCC has been in use in Europe for decades where higher energy prices made gasification a reality much sooner than here in the U.S. The Europeans chose IGCC not as the lowest cost option, but as the realistic, environmentally responsible option for producing large quantities of base load power at affordable rates; exactly what we believe our region will need in the coming decade.
“Furthermore, with three large corporate partnerships emerging to offer standardized IGCC plant designs with guaranteed prices and performance warranties, the cost gap between gasification and coal plants has narrowed dramatically. At the same time, questions regarding IGCC readiness for commercial deployment have been answered by the entry of those and other major players in the market,” he concluded.
Energy Northwest’s IGCC power complex proposal includes features to ready the plant for additional equipment to allow the capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide, if and when it becomes commercially feasible. The BSCSP includes other partners, such as Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, who are actively working on processes to safely and permanently sequester captured carbon dioxide. One such initiative is focused on storing carbon dioxide in underground geologic formations common to the Pacific Northwest.
Energy Northwest is working with the Port of Kalama to ensure community members have full access to information about the proposed power complex, including potential environmental and economic benefits to the area. A public meeting is slated for Wednesday, November 9, at the Kalama Community Building, 126 North 2nd Street in Kalama, at 7 p.m. Energy Northwest and Port representatives will be on hand to share information and answer questions.