Construction is under way at the E.A. Gilbert Generating Unit at East Kentucky Power Cooperative’s Spurlock Station on Kentucky 8.
EKPC held a project celebration at the plant Monday morning in conjunction with its board of directors meeting.
Roy Palk, EKPC president and CEO, told those gathered that the E.A. Gilbert Generating Unit will benefit the local economy, the consumer and the environment.
“Making the decision to build this power plant was an unusual decision because of the environmental constraints” on coal-burning facilities, said Palk. “People said, ‘ You can’t burn coal and have an environmentally sound plant.’ We don’t believe that.”
The new unit is named for EKPC Board Member E.A. “Ned” Gilbert whose service to electric cooperatives makes him one of the most important leaders in Kentucky’s history of rural electrification, said Palk.
“This is not only a wonderful day for Maysville and Mason County but for Kentucky and those 450,000 people who will draw power from the plant,” said Gilbert. “It is a great honor to have my name on the newest, cleanest coal-fired plant.”
The unit is the first coal-fired unit to be built by EKPC in 21 years.
The unit will operate with a clean-coal technology known as a Circulating Fluidized Bed process which is recognized for extremely low emissions. Coal, mixed with a very small amount of limestone, will burn at nearly half the temperature of a traditional pulverized coal unit and will have 98 percent of the sulfur dioxide removed during the burning process. This technology will also produce five times less nitrogen oxide.
Not only will the unit have the lowest emission levels of any coal powered plant in America, but it will help keep Kentucky’s environment clean in other ways.
The unit will burn different types of coal and offer a new market to the coal industry, said Palk.
“What would otherwise be unusable (coal) is usable,” he said. “We are setting coal-burning history.”
In addition, the plant will have the capability to burn several million tires a year and 150,000 tons of biomass such as sawdust and other wood products.
“The unit will help Kentucky dispose of used tires that are now winding up in illegal dumps and in waterways,” said Palk. The unit can use material which is “an imposition to the environment” as fuel.
The project is set to provide 300 to 400 construction jobs to build the unit through the spring of 2005. About 600 workers will be on-site during peak construction. The average annual payroll will be $60,000 for each construction job. These jobs will pump $20 million in annual construction payroll into the economy of Mason and surrounding counties, and will generate an estimated $1 million in city and county payroll taxes during construction.
“I think its wonderful for the community and it comes at a really good time with the downturn in the economy,” said state Rep. Mike Denham. “We’re really blessed that we have this opportunity.”
The new technology being used at the plant could be the start of something that will help coal-burning plants across the nation, said Denham.
Spurlock Station currently has two generating units that use conventional pulverized coal technology: a 300-megawatt unit built in 1977 and a 500-watt unit built in 1981.
Equipment is being installed to lower emissions of nitrogen-oxide. Such emissions are thought to contribute to smog formation. About $200 million is being spent by EKPC to install selective catalytic reduction units to control nitrous-oxide by injecting ammonia during the electric generation process. One SCR is operating at Spurlock and another is under construction.
