North Carolina OKs plan to replace coal with natural gas at Progress Energy plant
Triangle Business Journal - by Frank Vinluan
State regulators have approved Progress Energy's plans to replace coal-fired generation with new natural gas-fueled units at its New Hanover County facility .
The North Carolina Utilities Commission on Wednesday gave Raleigh-based Progress (NYSE: PGN) the green light to build a 620 megawatt combined cycle power plant at the utility's Sutton Plant. Progress plans to retire the three coal-fired units at the plant in 2014. Progress announced last year its plans to shutter the coal-fired units once the new natural gas facility is operational.
The utility is also building new natural gas generation to take the place of coal units at its Lee Plant in Wayne County. Progress has said that the new natural gas-fueled generation will cost less than retrofitting the old coal-fired units with emissions reducing scrubbers. The new gas-fueled units represent an estimated investment of about $600 million.
Progress serves 3.1 million customers in the Carolinas and Florida
Reporter e-mail: fvinluan@bizjournals.com
