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22 March 2007 -- Duke Energy estimates it would cost $1.53 billion to build a single 800 MW supercritical pulverized coal coal-fired power unit at its Cliffside power plant site in western North Carolina, the state Public Utilities Commission said Wednesday.
Including allowance for funds used during construction, the price tag would grow by another $400 million. That means the estimated construction cost would be anywhere between $1,912 to $2,412 per kW.
The commission said permission to build the single unit is conditional on Duke retiring Cliffside Units 1 through 4 as the new generator becomes operational.
Duke provided cost information to regulators last October showing a "significant" increase in bid prices, according to a commission order issued March 21. Bids for the boiler, steam turbine generator, air quality system controls and other major plant components could be "40 percent higher" than estimated at an August 2006 hearing, the order said.
In approving the power plant proposal, the commission favored SCPC technology over gas fired combined cycle, citing natural gas price volatility, higher capacity factors at coal plants, the likelihood that natural gas imports will become necessary as domestic supplies decline and the fact that Duke already plans to add gas-fired generating capacity over the next several years. "Using coal for its baseload capacity needs in 2011 will tend to diversify its generation fleet," the commission said.
In North Carolina alone, Duke expects a 50 percent increase in demand from 2000 to 2030.
By approving one unit now, the commission said that pollution control and integrated gasification combined cycle technologies would have more time to develop before Duke needed to add more baseload capacity. "Approving one unit now, together with a retirement of older, coal-fired units, limits Duke's carbon footprint and serves as a hedge against the prospect of carbon regulation," the commission said.
Commissioner Robert V. Owens Jr. dissented from the order.
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