Dominion Environmental Report

Throughout Dominion's history, we have demonstrated respect for the environment and an ongoing commitment to conservation. This section provides some details on our recent environmental performance. Select a topic below and use the left-hand links under Performance for more topics:

Environmental Expenditures

Environmental monitoring and protection expenses include the operation and maintenance expenses of environmental control equipment, costs of coal combustion by-product disposal and costs of replacement power for operation of environmental control equipment and derates.

Expenses also include taxes on environmental facilities, environmental fees and labor costs associated with environmental support. Expenses indicated in the chart are corporate-wide.

Environmental Expenditures

The installation of equipment to reduce sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury emissions is to meet stringent new emissions reductions required by the federal Clean Air Interstate and state Mercury rules.

The new equipment will be installed between 2008 and 2015.

With completion of all of the environmental construction by 2015, Dominion will have reduced its SO2 emissions by an average of more than 80 percent for all of its coal-fired units that serve Virginia. Nitrogen oxide emissions will decrease by 74 percent and mercury emissions by about 86 percent from 2000 levels.

NOx Emissions

Total annual NOx emissions are provided for reported emissions across Dominion operations. During the time period of the chart below, NOx controls called selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems were installed on eight of our largest coal-fired units. The emission reduction from these controls and the Possum Point project contributed to the reductions in NOx emissions seen in 2003 and 2004.

In addition, Dominion's gas transmission and delivery operations have installed emission reduction controls on more than 75 older gas compressor engines in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York to reduce NOx emissions. Dominion also has installed electronic controllers to monitor and control operation of these engines. Sophisticated maintenance management systems ensure proper operation.

Recent and planned construction of new facilities in Virginia and Maryland will include state-of-the-art controls to minimize emissions of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. In some cases, Dominion has elected to use pollutant-free electric engines to power their gas compressors.

Operation of selective catalytic reduction systems at the Brayton Point Power Station in Massachusetts will result in more than a 90 percent reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions from two units.

By 2015, plans are in place to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 74 percent from 2000 levels for coal-fired units serving Virginia.

NOx Emissions

NOx Emissions/MW-hr Generation

Possum Point Repowering

In early 2003, Dominion completed the repowering of the Possum Point Power Station in Northern Virginia from coal to natural gas, and the replacement of two oil-fired units with a 550-MW state-of-the-art combined cycle natural gas unit. Dominion had been working closely with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to find creative, cost-effective solutions to improve air quality in the northern Virginia area, a designated nonattainment area for ozone, and the repowering project met each of these objectives.

In addition to reducing NOx emissions by about 4,000 tons per year, the project will reduce SO2 emissions by approximately 15,000 tons per year, mercury emissions by about 130 pounds per year and CO2 emissions by more than 35,000 tons per year.

Note: The annual NOx Emissions chart represents reported NOx emissions from all Dominion operated electrical generating sources, NOx emissions from Dominion Gas Operations Title V permitted sources only, and NOx emissions from permitted sources for Exploration and Production Operations. The annual NOx Emissions/MW-hr Generation chart represents NOx emissions from all Dominion operated electrical generation sources only normalized by the gross electrical generation.

Note: The annual SO2 Emissions chart represents reported SO2 emissions from all Dominion operated electrical generating sources and SO2 emissions from permitted sources for Exploration and Production Operations. The annual SO2 Emissions/MW-hr Generation chart represents SO2 emissions from all Dominion operated electrical generation sources only normalized by the gross electrical generation.

Plans call for scrubbers on the other three units at Chesterfield to be in operation in 2010. When fully operational, Chesterfield will achieve greater than 95 percent reduction in SO2.

In addition, the Brayton Point Power Station in Massachusetts has plans to construct comprehensive emissions controls to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions.

Dominion has reduced emissions of key air pollutants, at the same time increasing our electric generation output by more than 50 percent (nearly 40,000,000 MWhs) from 2000 to 2007.

The results reflected in the sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogren oxides (NOx) are in part a result the commitments made in the Emission Reduction Agreement. The improvements are also reflected in the environmental expenditure chart.

In April 2003, Dominion finalized a landmark agreement with the EPA and five states, committing to a 12-year, $1.2 billion program to significantly reduce air emissions across our coal-fired generating fleet in Virginia and West Virginia.

Under the program, Dominion has agreed to install sulfur dioxide scrubbers and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology for nitrogen oxides on its largest coal-fired units as well as to upgrade the removal efficiency of current scrubbers and particulate matter controls.

Dominion has already begun to implement elements of this settlement, including the completed installation and operation of two new wet limestone scrubbers with 95 percent removal efficiency at the Mt. Storm Power Station in West Virginia. These scrubbers collectively remove 100,000 tons of sulfur dioxide emissions per year.

The two new scrubbers, along with the existing Unit 3 scrubber which has been operational since 1995, are positively benefiting the air quality in environmentally sensitive areas such as Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and the Dolly Sods and Otter Creek Wilderness areas in West Virginia.

Dominion has installed SCR systems on eight of its largest coal-fired units, operating these systems to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions during the ozone season. Under the EPA agreement, Dominion will begin phasing in year-round operation of these controls in 2008.

At the Possum Point Power Station, the coal-fired units were converted to natural gas, resulting in decreases in carbon intensity.

Carbon dioxide emissions also are provided for all owned (as of January 1, 2008) Dominion electric generating units whether or not they were owned by Dominion during the 2000-2006 time frame. If an electrical generating source was acquired during or after the 2000-2007 period, its actual yearly emissions of CO2 were included for the entire period.

The CO2 Emissions Intensity chart shows the tons of carbon dioxide per net megawatt hour of electricity produced. Carbon intensity for the Dominion fleet has declined over this period primarily due to the acquisition and build of lower emitting generation and acquisition of non-greenhouse gas emitting nuclear generation, as well as changes in demand for some units.

Emissions of CO2 equivalent (including CO2, N2O and methane) from Dominion's Transmission and East Ohio Delivery natural gas businesses in 2005 and 2006 were approximately 4.16 million and approximately 4.10 million US tons, respectively.