NRG Energy, Inc. Monday announced it has completed the coal-to-gas projects at four power plants across NRG’s fleet, including 2 plants in Pennsylvania-- Shawville, Clearfield County, and New Castle, Lawrence County.

The successful introduction of natural gas replacing coal as the primary fuel allows these units to continue meeting customer needs while complying with current environmental standards and supporting NRG’s wider decarbonization efforts.

“We’ve made outstanding progress across our generation portfolio to support our optimization strategy,” said Mauricio Gutierrez, CEO of NRG. “Driven by the economics of power generation, we modified units at four plants to switch from burning coal to natural gas, significantly reducing greenhouse gas and other emissions, while maintaining reliability in the system. Along with growing our renewables portfolio, these optimization projects keep NRG competitive while advancing on our sustainability commitments.”

Collectively, the modified units can generate more than 2,780 MW, enough power to meet the demands of more than two million average homes.

Given the anticipated reductions in carbon emissions resulting from these modifications, combined with the expected operating profiles for the units, the four plants are expected to reduce their combined carbon footprint by more than 80 percent.

“These modifications allow us to keep the lights on for millions of customers, helping keep power reliable, affordable and cleaner, while we continue towards a sustainable energy future,” added Gutierrez.

Click Here for more details on the Shawville Generating Station.  Click Here for more on the New Castle Generating Station.

(Photo: NRG’s Shawville Generating Station.)

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[Posted Dec. 23, 2016]

12/26/2016