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Electric News Releases - 1999
February 16, 1999
Virginia Power To Add Scrubbers At Mt. Storm
RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia Power has signed a contract for
the construction of two additional scrubbers to remove sulfur dioxide from emissions
at its Mt. Storm Power Station in West Virginia.
The scrubbers, which will be in operation by February 2002,
will remove 95 percent of the SO2 emissions from Units 1 and 2. Unit
3 already is equipped with a scrubber. They are part of Virginia Power's overall
strategy to reduce SO2 emissions as part of Phase II of the Clean
Air Act Amendments of 1990.
"We have committed to installing state-of-the-art scrubbers
that utilize the latest technological improvements," said W. Robert Cartwright,
senior vice president-Fossil & Hydro. "The end result will be significant
improvements in the air quality for areas to the east of the station, especially
the environmentally sensitive Shenandoah National Park."
Each scrubber will remove about 55,000 tons of SO2
a year.
The contract was awarded to Marsulex Environmental Technologies,
a Lebanon, Pa., firm. Marsulex, which signed a "turn-key" contract,
hired Lockwood-Green, an Atlanta, Ga., engineering firm, and J.A. Jones Construction
of Charlotte, N.C., to complete its team. Construction is scheduled to begin
in March.
Cost of the two-scrubber project is estimated at $118 million,
considerably less than the $150 million paid for the scrubber on Unit 3. The
cost of the project will be paid out of the company's operating budget and not
passed through to the company's 2 million customers.
"Both the company and the environment are benefiting
from improvements made over the last several years that have lowered the cost
of scrubbers while improving their design," Cartwright said.
The major difference between the planned scrubbers and the
one already in operation is the design of the scrubber vessel, where the chemical
reaction that removes SO2 occurs. The vessel for Unit 3 is made of
a carbon steel shell with an alloy lining. The absorber vessel for Units 1 and
2 will be made of reinforced concrete with a tile lining.
"The tile lining is better able to withstand corrosion
and abrasion," Cartwright said.
Scrubbers operate by spraying a mixture of pulverized limestone
and water into the exhaust gas of the generating units. Inside the scrubber
vessels, calcium in the limestone reacts with the gaseous SO2 to
form calcium sulfate, commonly know as gypsum. Some of the gypsum from the scrubbers
will trucked to nearby mines and used to help reclaim highly acidic mine water
runoff. The remainder will be placed in a landfill on the plant site.
Mt. Storm Power Station is located near the West Virginia/Maryland
line about 75 miles west of Winchester, Va. Each of the three units at the station
has a maximum design capacity of 550 megawatts.
Virginia Power is the principal subsidiary of Dominion Resources
Inc., (NYSE: D), an international energy business with headquarters in Richmond.
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