Save the Valley joins fight against Duke over project

Save the Valley joins fight against Duke over project

Staff and Wire Reports

Save the Valley is among three groups that have joined together to challenge plans by Duke Energy Corp. and Vectren Corp. for a new type of coal-fired electric plant in southwestern Indiana. The coalition says the power plant could cost consumers billions of dollars and might never work.

Citizens Action Coalition and the environmental groups Valley Watch and Save the Valley filed a petition Wednesday with state regulators seeking to intervene in the first steps of the plan by Duke and Vectren. During the process, the utilities must demonstrate the plant is needed.

Grant Smith, the executive director of Citizens Action Coalition, said that since the two companies announced plans for the 630-megawatt coal gasification plant last year, the cost has risen by $500 million and could go higher.

The three groups contend that the technology the plant would use, called integrated gasification combined cycle, or IGCC, has not been commercially proven, and say that could drive its price even higher. They say consumers would pick up the tab.

The plant, which would be built in Edwardsport northeast of Vincennes, would use cutting-edge technology to convert coal into a synthesis gas that would be processed to remove sulfur, mercury and ash, the companies say. That gas would then generate power using combustion and steam turbines.

"Duke itself has recognized on the record that there are serious questions regarding the technology they are proposing," said Jerome Polk, attorney for the three groups. " In a recent case before regulators, Duke witnesses testified that, 'because the IGCC technology is still evolving, it presents the potential for reliability or operating constraints.' Duke witnesses also testified that the technology was still only 'in the early stages of commercial development.'"

Duke Energy spokeswoman Angeline Protogere said that since the plant was proposed last year, its estimated cost has risen from between $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion to the $1.6 billion to $2.1 billion range due to rising costs for materials and labor.

"The costs of power plant projects in general, whether they are coal gasification or traditional coal plants, have all risen. It's not unique to this technology," she said.

Protogere said Indiana is projected to need more power between 2010-2015, although current levels are more than adequate.

Protogere said the technology at the plant has been used for years in Europe and is now moving into the commercialization phase in the United States.

She questioned the groups' contention that renewable energy sources, particularly wind power, would be cheaper and have public health and environmental advantages over the new plant.

Wind farms simply don't offer dependable power like coal-fired power plants, she said.

"You cannot always count on the wind, particularly on hot summer days, when you'd need wind the most, there's not much wind at all," Protogere said.

She said Duke, which in September finalized an agreement to buy up to 100 megawatts of electricity from a California company that is building a wind farm in Benton County, views electricity-generating wind turbines as good sources of power.

Duke announced Thursday that the federal government would provide $133 million in tax incentives for the coal plant, if it's built. Protogere said those credits and comparable funding promised at the state and local levels "will help reduce costs for consumers."

Mary Beth Fisher, a spokeswoman for the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, said the groups' petition will be assigned to a commissioner and a judge.

"What we will do is consider the facts as presented in the case and make a decision based on the evidence. But that's a long way down the road," Fisher said.