Montour Power Plant

PPL Corporation will invest an estimated $630 million in pollution control equipment for three coal-fired generating units in a project that will further reduce air emissions, create jobs and improve the competitiveness of key generating plants in Pennsylvania.

PPL will install "scrubbers" on the two generating units at its Montour power plant north of Danville and on the largest unit of its Brunner Island power plant south of Harrisburg. Construction will begin early next year and is expected to be completed in 2008 for Montour and 2010 for Brunner Island.

The scrubbers will remove nearly all of the sulfur dioxide now emitted from these units. Sulfur dioxide is formed from the combustion of coal and other fossil-fuels and contributes to acid rain.

Scrubbers will make the plants more competitive because the cost of installing scrubbers is less than the anticipated future cost of buying required emissions allowances to operate the plants.

Additionally, the project is expected to lead to a significant economic development benefit for the region around the Montour plant. PPL is negotiating with a potential partner regarding the beneficial reuse of byproducts from the scrubbers. PPL and its potential partner hope to make an announcement about this innovative, environmentally sound and job-creating proposed venture soon.

During a time when demand for electricity has increased significantly, PPL has continued to make emissions reductions. Since 1990, the company's fleet of power plants has cut nitrogen oxide emissions by almost 60 percent, sulfur dioxide emissions by almost 40 percent and carbon dioxide emissions by about 15 percent.

At both Montour and Brunner Island, particulate collection equipment removes 99 percent of the ash that would otherwise be emitted from the stacks. Nearly 100 percent of that is processed and beneficially used as construction material.

Additionally, between 60 percent and 90 percent of those plants' nitrogen oxide emissions are removed through the use of low nitrogen oxide burners and selective catalytic reduction systems.

An additional environmental aspect of the scrubber installations is that all of the byproducts of the scrubbers will be beneficially reused and not landfilled. Scrubbers use pulverized limestone in a chemical process that removes sulfur dioxide from flue gases.

The project will create jobs at both power plants because operating the scrubbers will require more employees. Also, the major construction projects to install the scrubbers will create hundreds of jobs over a five-year period.

United Kingdom and Latin America.

NewsClip: PPL Plans to Clear Air Around 2 Power Plants

Montour PPL Station’s Scrubbers a Win-Win-Win

Landfill Gas-fueled Plant Due in Lancaster

2/25/2005