The Tennessee Valley Authority board decided unanimously today to retrofit two units at the Shawnee Fossil Fuel Plant near Paducah.
Officials had to decide between retrofitting, converting to burn biomass or retiring the units.
TVA Executive Vice President Chip Pardee delivered the decision.
“To authorize the installation of scrubbers on Shawnee units 1 and 4 in order to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions and to approve the $185 million capital budget necessary in order to install that emissions control equipment," said Pardee.
TVA President and CEO Bill Johnson says this was the best decision to both save jobs and money.
“This and recent similar decisions by the board are not made in a vacuum....They’ve been made in the context of developing an optimal long-term energy resource fleet for the Tennessee Valley. A fleet that produces reliable, low-cost energy—that’s a must—but also promotes the economic development and environmental stewardship aspects of TVA’s mission.”
The equipment is set to be installed before December 31st, 2017.
Pardee says the other seven Shawnee units should be compliant with EPA standards for a decade.
Paducah Area Community Reuse Organization Executive Director Charlie Martin has pushed for retrofitting in previous TVA meetings.
A 2011 TVA agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency required the utility to decide what to do with the two units before the end of the year.
