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Electric News Releases
April 11, 2000
Dominion Generation Announces Major Environmental Project
for Cleaner Air in Northern Virginia
RICHMOND, Va. -- Dominion Generation, a unit of Dominion
(NYSE: D), announced Tuesday that it will stop burning coal at its Possum Point
Power Station in Northern Virginia and construct an environmentally cleaner
combined-cycle unit that generates electricity with natural gas.
"This project will have a major, positive impact on
the air quality of Northern Virginia," said Thomas F. Farrell II, chief
executive officer for Dominion Generation. "Combined-cycle units are more
efficient than coal-fired units, and they produce significantly less air emissions.
We would not undertake this project if it would not significantly contribute
to improvements in air quality."
The combined-cycle unit will consist of two combustion turbines
and a steam generator. The combustion turbines are basically large jet engines.
Forced air, superheated by natural gas, turns a turbine to generate electricity.
Exhaust from the combustion turbines will be captured and used to produce steam
to power another turbine. By recapturing the waste heat, combined-cycle units
burn less fuel and produce fewer emissions than comparably sized conventional
units.
Dominion Generation manages Virginia Power's generating units
for Dominion, one of the largest gas and electric companies in the United States.
The company will file later this spring for approval from the Virginia State
Corporation Commission to build the combined-cycle unit. The project also will
require air permits issued by the state Department of Environmental Quality.
The estimated cost of the project is $280 million. Compared
to a similarly sized state-of-the-art coal-fired station, the combined-cycle
unit will produce about 82 percent less nitrogen oxide emissions and 92 percent
less sulfur dioxide emissions.
The unit should be operational by May 2003. The combined-cycle
unit will generate about 450 megawatts during the summer and about 500 megawatts
in the winter, or enough electricity to power about 125,000 typical homes. At
that time, the company will stop burning coal in Possum Point Units 3 and 4,
which have a combined generation of 322 megawatts.
In addition, the company plans to retire Units 1 and 2, which
operate on fuel oil, no later than May 2003. Units 1 and 2 have a combined capacity
of about 145 megawatts.
Northern Virginia has been declared an ozone non-attainment
area, and the Department of Environmental Quality has been working to develop
a plan to reduce ozone levels in the area.
"We have been working closely with the state to find
creative, cost-effective solutions to improve the air quality in Northern Virginia,
and our conversion to gas certainly meets all those objectives," Farrell
said. "It made environmental and economic sense to build this new unit,
which operates cleaner and more efficiently on natural gas."
The combined-cycle unit will provide intermediate load generation.
The units will operate as customers demand more electricity but not run all
the time as base load generating units do. Possum Point Units 3 and 4 also provide
intermediate load.
Ground-level ozone is formed largely by nitrogen oxide emitted
by automobiles. Combustion of fossil fuels at industrial facilities also produces
nitrogen oxide.
Dominion Generation also operates two combined-cycle units
at its Chesterfield Power Station and one at its Bellmeade plant in Richmond.
Dominion, based in Richmond, Va., provides electricity and
gas to 4 million customers in Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and
West Virginia. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Internet
site at www.dom.com.
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