The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin on Jan. 12 approved a July 2014 application from Wisconsin Power and Light, Wisconsin Public Service Corp. and Madison Gas and Electric for a $150m selective catalytic reduction system to be installed on the coal-fired Unit 2 of the Columbia Energy Center in Columbia County, Wisconsin.
The proposed project is to ensure compliance with existing and anticipated NOX emissions requirements and regulations, and to ensure compliance with a mandate included in a 2013 consent decree between the applicants, Sierra Club, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which resolved allegations that past projects undertaken on Unit 2 triggered obligations under the Clean Air Act to install NOX emission control equipment. Construction of the SCR is expected to start in 2016 and be wrapped up in 2018.
Columbia Unit 2 consists of a tangentially-fired boiler and steam turbine generator with a nameplate capacity of 511 MW. It is already equipped with low NOx burners and separated overfire air to reduce NOx emissions. Columbia Unit 2 is also equipped with a cold-side electrostatic precipitator for particulate control and activated carbon injection to reduce mercury. A dry flue gas desulfurization system, comprised of spray dryer absorbers (SDAs) and a baghouse, were placed in operation in 2014 on Columbia Unit 2 to reduce SO2, further reduce particulate matter and reduce acid gas emissions.
