VIA EMAIL and FEDEX OVERNIGHT Re: Monongahela Power Company
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TM Gary A. Jack Telephone: 304.534.7409 Senior Coworate Counsel Fax: 330.315.9939 VIA EMAIL AND FEDEX OVERNIGHT John Auville, Esquire Legal Division Public Service Commission of West Virginia 201 Brooks Street PO Box 812 Charleston, WV 25323 Re: Monongahela Power Company and The Potomac Edison Company Petition for Approval of a Generation Resource Transaction and Reiaied Relief; Case No. 12-1571-E-PC Dear Mr. Auville: Enclosed please find Monongahela Power Company’s and The Potomac Edison Company’s response in the above-referenced case to the following Staffs First Request for Information Nos. 4, 5,9 and 10. Sincerely, Senior Corporate Counsel WV State Bar No. 1855 GAJ:bsm Enclosures cc: Christopher Callas, Esq. (Via Email) Sandra Squire - WVPSC (Via FedEx Overnight) Monongahela Bower Company and The Potomac Edison Company Case No. 12-1571-E-PC West Virginia PSC Staff First Request for Information The following response to Q-1.4 of the First Request for Information of the West Virginia PSC Staff received on December 21,2012 has been prepared under the supervision of the person identified below. Name: Michael B. Delmar Title: Director, Regulated Generation and Dispatch Company: FirstEnergy Service Company Date: January 7,2013 ~~ Q-1.4 Mihat is the projected date of retirement for the Harrison facility? Response: Mon Power's probable retirement dates for book depreciation purposes for the Harrison facilities are as follows: Harrison Generating Unit 1 June 30,2037 Harrison Generating Unit 2 June 30,2038 Harrison Generating Unit 3 June 30,2039 Harrison Common Facilities June 30,2039 Monongahela Power Company and The Potomac Edison Company Case No. 12-1571-E-BC West Virginia PSC Staff First Request for Information The following response to Q-1.5 of the First Request for Information of the West Virginia PSC Staff received on December 2 1,2012 has been prepared under the supeivisioii of the person identified below. Name: Michael B. Delmar Title: Director, Regulated Generation and Dispatch Company: FirstEnergy Service Company Date: January 4,20 13 Q-1.5 What is the projected life expectancy of Console Energy's Robinson Run mine? Response: Consol's Robinson Run mine's reserve base is approximately 300 million recoverable tons, or approximately 50 years at the mines cui-rent rate of production. Monongahela Power Company and The Botomac Edison Company Case No. 12-1571-E-BC West Virginia PSC Staff First Request for Information The following response to Q-1.9 of the First Request for Information of the West Virginia PSC Staff received on December 21,2012 has been prepared under the supervision of the person identified below. Name: Michael B. Delmar Title: Director, Regulated Generation and Dispatch Company: FirstEnergy Service Company Date: January 7,2013 Q-1.9 What is the projected date of retirement for the Pleasants facility? Response: Mon Power's probable retirement dates for the purposes of book depreciation for the Pleasazts fzcilities zre as fc~!!ows: Pleasants Generating Unit 1 June 30,2044 Pleasants Generating Unit 2 June 30,2045 Pleasants Gypsum Plant June 30,2045 Pleasants Common Facilities June 30,2045 Monongahela Power Company and The Potomac Edison Company Case No. 12-1571-E-PC West Virginia PSC Staff First Request for Information The following response to Q-1.10 of the First Request for Information of the West Virginia PSC Staff received on December 21,2012 has been prepared under the supervision of the person identified below. Name: Thomas A. Pezze Title: Director Technical Services Company: FirstEnergy Date: 1E201 3 Q-1.10 Please describe the Pleasants facility in as much detail as was provided in the direct testimony (pages 2 though 11) of h4i. Thomas ,4. Pezze for the Harrison facility. Response: See Staff-Set 1-Q- 1.10 Attachment. Description of Pleasants Power Station Pleasants is a two-unit. supercritical coal power plant located on the south bank of the Ohio River, 15 miles east of Parkersburg, West Virginia on Route 2. It is jointly owned by AE Supply (92.3196) and Mon Power (7.699'0). Pleasants encompasses 152 acres of a 1,267-acre site and currently staffs approxirxately 200 full-time employees to operate and maintain the facility. Unit 1 began commercial operation in 1979 and Unit 2 followed in 1980. Pleasants has a net generating capacity of 1,300 MW, and each unit is rated for 650 MW. The PJM sunmier Instalied Capacity ("ICAP") obligation is 1.278 Mv\'. Pleasants can receive coal by barge, rail car and highway truck. Currently. coal is delivered primarily by barge and originates from Ohio and Illinois basin coal mines. Ezch of Peastiits' wits is equipped with Wet Flue Gas Desulfurization ("WFGD"), more commonly known 2s a "scrubber." as ell as Selective Catalytic Reduction ("SCR") and Electrostatic Precipitators ("ESP") facilities to control SOX,NOx and particulate matter. PRIMARY COMJ'ONENTS OF PLEAS4NTS POWER STATION. The major components of Pleasants are (i) turbines, (ii) generators, (iii) boilers. (iv) cooling towers, and (v) stacks or chimneys. Turbines Each unit at Pleasants has a turbine train consisting of four turbine elements: (a) one single flow high pressure C'HP'') turbine, (ii) one dual flow intei-niediate pressure ("IP") turbine. and (iii) two dual flow low pressure ("L?.') turbines. which are coupled together in series. These turbines were manufactured by Allk Chalmers Power Systems, nom’ Siemens Power (“Siemens”). Genera tors Both of the generators at Pleasants were also manufactured by AlIis Chalmers Power Systems, now Siemens. The generators are hydrogen-cooled and are rated at 760 mega volt amps (“MVA”): have a 0.9 power factor, and produce 26.000 volts and 60 hertz. The 26,000 volts supplied by each generator is increased to 500 kilovolts (*‘KV*’) by the generator step-up transformer (“GSU”) before being transmitted across the electric grid. Bo ilem Each unit has a Foster Wheeler coal-fired supercritical boiler with a single reheat. Tt.llle boilcrj* are rated st 5,035,000 %S~II ef stem at 3,550 po-mds per square inch gauge (‘*PSIG‘) and 1.01 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Each boiler is equipped with twenty-four pulverized coal burners, six coal silos, twelve coal feeders and six Foster Wheeler ball mill coal pulverizers. Natural gas is used to light-off the boilers and establish a coal flame. The combustion air is mainly heated by Ljungstrum regenerative air heaters. Each unit is equipped with 2 primaiy and two secondary air heaters. The 2A primary air heater is a heat pipe design rather than a regenerative air heater. The combustion air is raised to a range of 420 to 650 degrees Fahrenheit. The boilers are of balanced draft design, requiring both forced and induced draft fans to move air and the products of combustion through the boiler. Coal is transported from the pulverizers to the burners by primary air fans. Cooling Towers Pleasants is equipped with two cooling towers. Each hyperbolic cooling tower is constructed from reinforced concrete and is 430 feet high and 360 feet in diameter. Circulating water is pumped to the turbine condensers from the cooling towers at a rate of 270,000 gallons per minute to cool and condense the turbine exhaust steam. These circulating water systems are closed loop; however, losses from cooling tower evaporazion and blow down OCCUT and are replaced with water from the Ohio River. Water evaporates from the cooling towers at a rate of approximately 5,400 gallons per minute. Stnclm/Chimneys There are three stacks at Pleasants, two of which have not been in use since the station went to 100% scrubbing in 2008. Each original stack is 1,000 feet high. The r,ewer stack is constmcted sf reinforced concrete with E base diameter of 73 feet The concrete stack acts as a structural shell that contains two 29-foot diameter chimney flues, one for each unit. The chimney flues are constructed of fiberglass. All flue gas from the combustion process exits the plant through the new chimney and is monitored for reporting purposes by emissions monitors. SOLID WASTE CONTROL AT PLEASANTS Pleasants includes an on-site solid waste landfill that is lined with clay and/or an approved alternative liner and also has a 274 acre wet impoundment on McElroy's run, Solid waste that is generated from the WFGD system and fly ashlbottom ash is disposed at this site. The total disposal area is I. 115 acres. At Peasants' current rate of generation, there is sufficient volume to operate a landfill for approximately 11 years, with the potential for fui-ther expansion if needed. Changes in environmental and dam safety regulations could force the closure of the McElroy's Run impoundment in 5 years. This would reduce the available landfill space by at least 3 years. Since the impoundment can also be used for storm water management closing it could have a substantial impact on station operations. Closure costs of the Mcelroy's Run impoundment could be significant. Should it be required that the impoundment be completely dewatered and the material removed and placed on a lined landfill the cost could be significant. B. Environmental Controls at Pleasants As indicated previously. Pleasants has WFGD (scrubbers), SCR and ESP controls. These are described in more detail below. J$TL?7GD/S(yZ&y Both units at Pleasants were built with WFGD controls, or scrubbers. during original construction. These scmbbers were manufactured by B&W. Each unit has 4 dedicated absorbers per unit and utilizes a wet lime WFGD process fed by magnesium enhanced lime, which is delivered to the station by barge. Originally these units were designed to bypass 10% of the flue gas to maintain stack exit temperatures but they were converted to 100% scrubbing in 2008.