Evaluation of Air Impacts from a Gas-Fired Combined Cycle Plant Licensed in Maryland after Deregulation of the Power Industry

摘要

In April 1999, the Maryland General Assembly passed the Electric Customer Choice and Competition Act, authorizing retail customer choice to be implemented in phases, beginning July 2000. The requirement that any "person" proposing to construct a generating station in Maryland must obtain a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) from the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) was retained in the Act. The CPCN process allows for a comprehensive review of all environmental and socioeconomic issues related to power plant construction and operation. The Maryland Power Plant Research Program (PPRP) coordinates the State's review of proposed generating facilities among all interested agencies, with the objective of minimizing any adverse impacts. With the introduction of competition in the power supply industry, developers are proposing a number of new plants in Maryland to meet increasing electricity demands throughout the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast. Each facility poses its own unique set of environmental, engineering, and socioeconomic issues. This paper presents the evaluation of air impacts from a proposed combined cycle plant, consisting of six state-of-the-art natural gas fired combined cycle combustion turbines. The proposed plant is typical of the types of new facilities that are expected for construction in a deregulated market. This case study is unique because the developer was not certain which combustion turbine vendor—General Electric, SiemensAVestinghouse, or Asea Brown Boveri (ABB)~would be able to meet the project demands for cost and schedule. Although many characteristics of the combustion turbines were similar, emissions of specific pollutants varied depending on turbine vendor. Therefore, PPRP evaluated air impacts from the three types of combustion turbines. The evaluation presented in this paper includes emissions investigations and other studies, including air dispersion modeling assessments, to ensure that impacts to air quality from the proposed project are acceptable.