Duke Energy Will Voluntarily Perform “Maximum Achievable”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Duke Energy will voluntarily perform a maximum achievable technology assessment of air emission controls planned for the new 800-megawatt, advanced clean coal unit under construction at Cliffside Steam Station.

“Duke Energy is confident that the current ‘best available control technology’ design will also assure maximum achievable technology levels of control for this unit’s hazardous air pollutants without any design modification,” said James L. Turner, president and chief operating officer, Duke Energy Franchised Electric and Gas. “We are responding voluntarily to perform this assessment as requested by the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources.”

Construction of the new unit continues at the site under the valid, legal permit that North Carolina issued in January 2008.

With industry-best guarantees, the unit’s state-of-the-art air emissions equipment will remove 99 percent of sulfur dioxide, 90 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions and 90 percent of mercury emissions.

Mercury emissions from the site will be cut in half when the new unit comes online in 2012 and the four older, less efficient units at the facility are retired. Best available technology under construction includes selective catalytic reduction, a dry scrubber, a baghouse and a wet scrubber.

Duke Energy will also voluntarily retire 1,000 megawatts of older coal-fired units and take additional steps to make Cliffside unit 6 carbon-neutral by 2018, as part of the air permit, although not required under state or federal law.

“Modernizing our fleet results in immediate air quality improvements in North Carolina,” said Turner. “This unit is among the cleanest coal-fired power plants ever built in this country. It’s good for our customers, our environment and North Carolina that electricity from this state-of-the-art facility will be available in 2012. ”

Duke Energy plans to meet its customers’ future energy needs with a diverse fuel portfolio. The company continues to pursue renewable power sources and power savings through energy efficiency. Two new natural gas-fired plants recently received regulatory approval. And the company continues to evaluate the nuclear option at a site in Cherokee County, S.C.

Duke Energy’s Carolinas’ operations include nuclear, coal-fired, natural gas and hydroelectric generation. That diverse fuel mix provides nearly 21,000 megawatts of safe, reliable and competitively priced electricity to more than 2.3 million electric customers in a 24,000-square-mile service area of North Carolina and South Carolina.

Duke Energy, one of the largest electric power companies in the United States, supplies and delivers electricity to approximately 4 million U.S. customers in its regulated jurisdictions.

The company has approximately 35,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity in the Midwest and the Carolinas, and natural gas distribution services in Ohio and Kentucky. In addition, Duke Energy has more than 4,000 megawatts of electric generation in Latin America, and is a joint-venture partner in a U.S. real estate company.