Utilities Can Improve Power Plant Efficiency, Become Emission-compliant in Short Term

摘要

New coal-fired plant construction costs some $2 million to $3 million per megawatt. A new facility then must be staffed and operated with new resources and additional fuel consumption. A similar-sized combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant costs about $1 million per megawatt in construction costs. Coal-fired generation is under considerable pressure from tightening air pollution control standards and fuel-price competition from natural gas. During the past five years, the financial community has made clear it is unwilling to finance any new large-scale, coal-fired generating facilities. An allternative to decommissioning old plants or con-structing new ones is to retrofit an existing coal-fired or oil-fired plant to burn natural gas. This is not the most energy-efficient use of natural gas, but it might turn out to be the most economically feasible approach to clean up an existing coal fleet without investing hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars for back-end pollution control equipment.