Free Daily Headlines

News

Set your text size: A A A

Utilities panel OKs Duke conversion, rejects backup

The North Carolina Utilities Commission on Monday approved Duke Energy's application to replace its Lake Julian coal plant with a new gas-fired power plant but went along with the public staff in rejecting a 186-megawatt backup unit that Duke said it might need by 2023.

The commission issued its decision on Duke's request for a “certificate of public convenience and necessity” to build two 280-megawatt natural gas units to replace the 379 MW coal plant when it retires in 2020.

Under a special law the Legislature passed last year to accelerate the review, the commission had 45 days to make a decision on Duke’s proposal. The commission will issue a more detailed decision at a later date.

“We’re disappointed in the North Carolina Utilities Commission’s decision to approve Duke Energy’s plans for a huge new gas-fired power plant near Asheville,” said Gudrun Thompson, the senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represented MountainTrue and Sierra Club. The environmental organizations applauded the panel's decision to reject what it described as "Duke’s premature application for the third unit."

"But replacing the coal plant with an oversized, billion-dollar gas plant will lock the region into dependence on dirty fossil-fueled power for decades when the rest of the nation is transitioning to cleaner, cheaper energy resources,” Thompson said.

Duke Energy officials praised the regulators' decision.

"We appreciate the North Carolina Utilities Commission’s thorough consideration and decision on our Western Carolinas Modernization Project,” David Fountain, Duke Energy’s North Carolina president, said in a news release. “We are fully committed to creating a smarter and cleaner energy future for the region.

"We also have a unique opportunity to work with the community to reduce energy demand and invest in technology that will provide cleaner energy to power the growing region of Western North Carolina,” he added. “This project will allow us to continue to provide cost-effective, reliable power for all of our customers in North Carolina and South Carolina.”

The company is working with the Asheville, Buncombe County and surrounding communities to explore solutions that will reduce energy use in the fast-growing, nine-county Duke Energy Progress-West region, which serves more than 350,000 people.

The company will closely track collective progress toward reducing daily and peak power demand and will file annual updates on the progress of the community’s efforts to reduce peak load growth.

If these efforts are successful, Duke Energy Progress will delay or cancel plans to file a future Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) application for the commercial operation of the Asheville 186-megawatt simple-cycle power plant.

Duke said it will file a future application to for a minimum of 15 megawatts of new solar generation over the next seven years after the Asheville coal units have been decommissioned and coal ash excavation is completed.