Duke Energy Receives Approval for New Proposal at Asheville Power Plant

“Natural gas prices may be low now, but we fear that over-investment in such a large plant will saddle our region’s families and businesses with higher electricity bills in the future”.

Environmental groups called Monday’s action a mixed decision, praising the rejection of the third turbine and the reduction in air pollution the approved plant will bring but expressing concern that constructing the two gas turbines will commit Duke to burning fossil fuels for years to come.

Duke had proposed the third turbine for use during peak times.

Asheville residents applauded the impending end of the coal plant, whose smokestacks had towered over southern Buncombe County since 1964. It added the turbine to its plans after widespread opposition to its plans to build a transmission line connecting the plant to SC.

Duke can seek commission approval for the third turbine later if it still feels it is needed, the commission’s order says.

“We’re committed to working with the community”, Pettit said.

Duke said it will file a future application to for a minimum of 15 megawatts of new solar generation over the next seven years after the Asheville coal units have been decommissioned and coal ash excavation is completed. Peak power demand has tripled in the region since 1970, Duke says, and spiked in the frigid winters of 2014 and 2015. The project is estimated to cost approximately $1 billion. Demand is expected to grow by 17 percent over the next decade.

Critics of the energy conversion plans have said that the new units are not necessary, and that the coal plants be shut immediately.

Emma Greenbaum, North Carolina organizing representative for Sierra Club, said she is pleased the commission turned down the third turbine but “disheartened that the approved plan allows for this oversized natural gas project to go forward”.

ProgressNC is nothing more than Roy Cooper’s SuperPAC that has been attacking Governor McCrory for years, and has zero credibility on this issue because they won’t disclose what out-of-state groups are funding their attacks. The plant’s two ponds have been linked to groundwater contamination, leading to charges by state regulators a year ago February.

“We welcome Duke’s long-overdue commitments to retire the Asheville coal plant in 2020 and clean up the leaking coal ash basins at the site”.

As WBTV previously reported, after pleading guilty to violating the Clean Water Act, Duke Energy has been delivering bottled water to people with tainted wells close to its North Carolina coal ash pits.