Dozens of UGI workers to go out with the coal

Dozens of UGI workers to go out with the coal

May 27 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Andrew M. Seder The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

UGI's last coal-fired power plant in Northeastern Pennsylvania will go off line Friday, leaving nearly 40 employees out of work.

"This was not an easy decision for the company," said Mike Mara, UGI Energy Services director of project development. "We spent several years evaluating the situation."

But in the end, cost and environmental factors gave the energy company little choice.

A new natural gas-run unit is being constructed adjacent to the coal plant. The price tag is $100 million, and it should be on line in the first quarter of 2011, Mara said.

"It was more cost-effective and efficient to go ahead with the natural gas plant," Mara added.

Part of that cost-effectiveness is the need for only 10 employees when the new plant is operational.

There are 50 working at the coal-fired plant. About 35 of them will retire or be laid off. A handful of others will be transferred within the company and about 10 will be furloughed and rehired to work at the new natural gas-operated plant.

Mara said final details are still being worked out with the union that represents the employees.

The current 44-megawatt coal-fired facility will be redesigned to run two 49-megawatt gas turbines, each attached to a "heat recover steam generator" that will utilize the turbines' waste heat to run the current steam turbine, giving the new "combined cycle" plant an expected capacity of roughly 125 megawatts, Mara said.

Because natural gas burns cleaner than coal, the new plant will create less sulfur and greenhouse-gas pollutants, but technology will be implemented to further reduce emissions, Mara added.

A "selective catalytic reduction" system will convert nitrogen oxides into nitrogen and water, while an "oxidation catalyst" system will reduce carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds.

The new plant will be permitted to burn distillate oil for a short period each year in the event that natural gas supplies get interrupted or natural gas prices become prohibitive, Mara confirmed.

He said the company will also receive "emission reduction credits" that it can sell to companies that want to emit more than their allotted share of pollutants. Mara said that includes current companies and startup companies that are looking to acquire the credits.

Andrew M. Seder, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 570-829-7269.