Cleaner Air
PSEG is 18th largest power producer in the United States and been a leading proponent of progressive policies to reduce the environmental impacts of electricity generation. Indeed, PSEG emissions are lower than most of its peers. PSEG has the third lowest carbon dioxide emission rate among the nation’s 25 largest electricity generators. We are now investing more than one billion dollars to reduce emissions even further.
Investing in Advanced Pollution Control Technology
PSEG Fossil is investing $1.5 billion to retrofit three of its coal plants with advanced pollution control equipment that will drastically reduce, by 80 to 90 percent or more, emissions of mercury, particulates, sulfur oxides (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) – substances that cause smog, acid rain and contribute to human health problems.
Two coal units at PSEG Fossil’s Mercer Generating Station were connected to baghouses, state-of-the-art pollution control devices that significantly reduce particulate matter emissions, and in combination with activated carbon injection, also achieve significant reductions in mercury emissions. The baghouses going in service completed the second phase of a three-part, $565 million program to install the best available pollution control technologies at the Hamilton, N.J., plant. In the first phase, we installed NOx emission controls and other upgrades. The third phase, scheduled for 2010, will include installing the nation’s most effective dry scrubber to limit sulfur emissions.
Finally, a new baghouse installed in 2007 on the Bridgeport Harbor Generating Station has reduced mercury emission by 90 percent and particulate matter emissions by an additional 75 percent from the reduction already achieved by the existing electrostatic precipitator. Bridgeport Harbor’s baghouse fulfills a commitment that PSEG made after it purchased the plant in 2002. PSEG worked with stakeholders including Connecticut legislators and environmental advocates to pass the nation’s first law regulating mercury emissions from coal power plants. PSEG has continued to push for congressional action to impose a similarly stringent cap on mercury emissions across the country.
Similar to the project at Mercer, air pollution control equipment will be installed in 2010 on our Hudson Generating Station coal burning unit to significantly reduce NOx, mercury, particulate, and sulfur emissions.
When the projects are completed in 2009, PSEG Fossil’s New Jersey coal plants will be among the nation’s cleanest. Of the nation’s 400 coal plants, Hudson and Mercer will be among the 30 plants with the lowest SO2 emissions, based on 2006 data. They will rank in the top 15 for lowest mercury emissions and in the top ten for lowest NOx emissions.
PSEG has partnered with CSX, a leading rail transportation company, to replace three diesel locomotives with ultra-clean, multi-engine generator-sets. Among the first to comply with EPA Tier 4 locomotive standards for particulate matter, they reduce nitrogen oxides by 80 percent, particulate matter emissions by 95 percent, and CO2 by up to 50 percent.
The new pollution control equipment at Mercer and Hudson Generating Stations will raise our cost of doing business by reducing energy output and increasing costs. The equipment uses tons of lime, activated carbon and ammonia, which have to be purchased and safely disposed of after use and are expected to cost around $30 million per year per plant.
The changes at Hudson and Mercer are in response to an Amended Consent Decree negotiated in 2002 with the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, US EPA, US Department of Justice and the NJ Department of Law and Public Safety.
Reducing Ozone-Causing Emissions
At the Essex and Burlington generating stations. PSEG Fossil has spent over $15 million installing high pressure water injection systems to reduce NOx emissions from 40 combustion turbine peaking units. The water injection systems will be used on high electric demand days to reduce NOx emissions from these units by 30 percent or more. High ozone days typically coincide with high electric demand days in the summer when high temperatures cause high electric demand and create the conditions that convert NOx to ground level ozone, which is a respiratory irritant. The reductions achieved on these units will help New Jersey reach the air quality standards for ozone.
