Duke Energy expansion (NC)
Three stages to Duke's planned expansion
In order to build two additional units at its Cliffside power plant in Rutherford and Cleveland counties, Duke Energy must go through several separate government approval processes. The key approvals Duke needs include:
Integrated Resource Plans
North Carolina utilities must submit annual resource plans that include electricity demand projections for the next 15 years and their plans for meeting that demand. The utilities are supposed to consider all options for meeting new demand, including energy efficiency and conservation, and select the lowest cost alternatives. A primary purpose of the planning process is to provide the Utilities Commission with the information it needs to inform its decisions on certificates to construct new power plants.
These annual plans show that Duke and its sister utilities, have all but ignored energy efficiency alternatives in developing their plans for meeting new demand.
Anticipating Duke’s plans to construct new coal-burning power plants, SELC intervened in the Utilities Commission proceeding to evaluate the integrated resource plans filed by utilities last fall and succeeded in getting the Commission to take a harder look at the utilities’ plans. The Commission granted our request for an evidentiary hearing, which was held in June, 2006 and we presented a case challenging the utilities’ complete failure to consider energy efficiency alternatives.
Obtain a Certificate of Public Convenience from the state Utilities Commission
Before constructing a new electricity generating unit in North Carolina, a utility must obtain a “Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity” from the North Carolina Utilities Commission. To obtain the certificate for its planned Cliffside units, Duke was required to establish that there was a need for these new facilities and there were no feasible and more economic alternatives for meeting this demand.
Due to the advocacy of SELC and its partner groups, the Utilities Commission allowed interested parties to intervene in this proceeding, allowing them to call for expert testimony and participate in a hearing held in September, 2006. During that hearing, SELC questioned Duke Energy officials, including CEO Jim Rogers, who admitted that Duke Energy's work on energy efficiency in North Carolina paled in comparison to other states. Furthermore, an independent analysis by an energy economics firm found that Duke had underestimated the cost of the new units. Not surprisingly, in November, Duke acknowledged that it had underestimated the cost of the new units by $1 billion.
Due to the work of SELC and others, the North Carolina Utilities Commission on February 28, 2007 turned down Duke Energy Carolina’s pans to build the full expansion, citing Duke’s failure to prove the need for the entire 1600 megawatt proposal. Instead, the Commission authorized only half of Duke’s request, one 800 megawatt facility, and required the company to retire four older units and commit one percent of its annual revenues to energy efficiency programs.
Obtain air permit
Whenever pollution from a proposed power plant will impact air quality in a national park or federal wilderness area, the responsible federal land manager must agree that the new plant will not have an adverse impact on the air quality in any such area before an air permit can be issued. Because pollution from this new plant will impact air quality in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Linville Gorge, Joyce Kilmer, and Shining Rock Wilderness Areas, Duke must secure an air permit before beginning construction of these new units. In July, 2006, however, Duke was able to push legislation through the North Carolina legislature that was designed to exclude the federal land managers from participating in the air permit process for the Cliffside units.
Duke Energy has applied for an air permit, which must be granted by the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources. A draft permit was released in August, 2007. the public has until October 31, 2007 to comment, including the opportunity to speak at a public hearing on September 18 in Forest City, NC. Click hear for more information
