Duke scales back Asheville power plant plans, scraps transmission line

Nov 4 - McClatchy-Tribune Content Agency, LLC - Bruce Henderson The Charlotte Observer

Duke Energy said Wednesday it will scale back its plans to convert its coal-fired Asheville power plant to natural gas and scrap a hotly-contested 45 mile transmission line.

The announcement is a win for the thousands of mountain residents who had questioned the need for a new 650-megawatt power plant and highly visible power lines running from Campobello, S.C., to southern Buncombe County.

Duke said it will instead build two smaller 280-megawatt gas units and won't need the new transmission line. Duke said it will rebuild transmission lines within existing rights-of-way.

The utility faces growing demand for power at peak times in the Asheville region, where it serves 160,000 customers. Peak demand for electricity soared 30 percent higher in the past two winters than in previous years.

Duke said it will work with customers to reduce peak demand through energy efficiency, voluntary cutbacks during peak times and renewable energy. The company said it will build a utility-scale solar farm at the Asheville plant.

"While the previous plan was more robust and scaled for the longer term, the new plan balances the concerns raised by the community and the very real need for more electricity to serve this growing region," Lloyd Yates, Duke's president for the Carolinas, said in a statement.

Duke announced in May that it would replace coal power with natural gas in Asheville. Duke said it would shut down the two coal-fired units by 2020, replacing them with a larger one fueled by natural gas.

The $1.1 billion project would reduce air emissions and increase electricity generation, with cheaper fuel, in a region that has to import energy during peak periods.

By early October, after some 9,000 mostly-hostile public comments had been filed, Duke said it would rethink the project.

"I think Duke just wildly underestimated what the reaction would be," Rep. Chuck McGrady, a Hendersonville Republican, said in late October. "If they thought Henderson County was a rural backwater they were greatly disappointed."

Instead critics in the county, which is a magnet for retired professionals, cranked out detailed analyses that questioned the need for 140-foot transmission towers strung across their mountains.

"We are a tourism-driven industry and they're talking about building towers 15 stories high in little towns that might not have anything more than three stories high," said Joan Walker of Asheville-based MountainTrue, which is among the groups that fought the project.

Opponents also tied Duke's continued use of natural gas to fracking and climate change.

Bruce Henderson: 704-358-5051, @bhender

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