RSS
Home
PGE proposes resource plan for meeting load growth
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Portland General Electric's 2009 resource portfolio. PGE graphic
Portland General Electric on November 5 filed a resource plan with the Oregon Public Utility Commission that would meet half the utility's load growth through 2020 with energy efficiency measures.
PGE projects that demand in its 4,000-square-mile service territory will increase 2.3 percent annually, or 20 percent by 2020.
The draft plan pledges to install a sorbent injection system on the 374-megawatt Boardman coal-fired power plant in order to reduce emissions of the neurotoxin mercury by 90 percent. The reductions were ordered by the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission on June 19. The emissions reduction plan has been submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection agency for final approval.
PGE also plans to install scrubbers, fabric filters, selective catalytic reduction, and combustion modifications to remove nearly 80 percent of Boardman's sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate emissions, which cause unsightly hazes.
PGE said it plans to acquire renewable resources to comply with Oregon's renewable energy portfolio standard, which requires PGE and other large utilities to obtain 5 percent of their power from qualifying renewables by 2011 and 25 percent by 2025. Today, PGE takes wind-generated power from the company-owned 275-megawatt Biglow Canyon project in Sherman County, as well as from two smaller projects, Klondike and Vansycle Ridge. PGE is adding 175 megawatts of capacity to Biglow Canyon.
Other targets in the plan include developing 300 to 500 megawatts of gas-fired baseload capacity and 100 to 200 megawatts of gas-fired peaking capacity. Today, PGE owns 1,175 megawatts of gas- and oil-fired generating capacity.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
.jpg)
