Seminole pulls plug on 3rd unit
By Chris DeVitto
Published: Saturday, December 19, 2009 1:43 AM EST
Plans for a $1.4 billion third coal-fired generating unit at Seminole Electric's Palatka facility have been scrapped, a company official said Friday.
"It is true we have canceled the Unit 3 project," said Jeff Fela, a spokesman for the Tampa-based utility cooperative. "This is a business decision and it is because of the uncertain regulatory and legal environment."
Fela said the company kept the project alive as long as it could.
"But it was in our members' best interest to pull the plug, so to speak," he said.
The original two-unit generating facility in Putnam County was built in 1984. Plans to add a third unit using clean coal technology were announced in 2006.
The 750-megawatt expansion would have boosted the Palatka plant's generating capacity by 60 percent, power that studies and the state said is needed by 2012.
The expansion would also have produced 50 full-time jobs and employed more than 1,500 construction workers during the four-year buildout, Fela said.
But the permitting process was lengthy and drew several challenges. After months of legal wrangling, in August 2008 officials at Seminole received a 178-page site certification needed for construction, signed by Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael W. Sole.
That decision came after a lengthy court battle between the utility and the state agency after the Crist administration began discouraging the building of coal-fired power plants.
The final site certification states that construction of Unit 3 will result in minimal adverse effects on human health, the environment and ecology of the surrounding land, water and its wildlife.
Seminole's final hurdle came in November 2008 with the filing of a lawsuit by the Sierra Club and another environmental group.
The Sierra Club was fighting the project by appealing the permit at the state level in the 1st District Court of Appeals and at the federal level at the Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Appeals Board.
Officials at Seminole responded by arguing the group's opposition came too late.
According to Fela, all court challenges by environmental groups had been resolved in Seminole's favor earlier this year.
The decision to cancel the project was disappointing news for Putnam County, Fela said.
"I know that they were counting on it and it's very sad," he said. "In today's business environment you have to do what's best for your members, especially if you are a nonprofit cooperative like us."
Even with the roadblocks, Seminole will continue to consider coal-fired generating stations.
"This doesn't change Seminole's view that coal will continue to play an important part in Seminole's energy portfolio," he said. "Because we will continue to operate units 1 and 2 at the Seminole generating station."
Putnam County Commission Chairman Chip Laibl said revenue from the third generating unit would have created needed funds for the county.
"The revenue stream certainly was much needed to do a lot of things that are pressing right now," he said. "The jobs associated with it were huge in the interim (construction period) and also equated to about 50 full-time jobs."
The county's budget will still remain balanced without revenue from Seminole, he added.
"We've been balancing the budget each year like it wasn't there - we never did count on the funds," he said. "But the revenue would have helped with our jail overcrowding and every aspect of the budget would have been enhanced by that."
Based in Tampa, Seminole Electric produces power for 10 electric cooperatives in Florida, including Clay Electric Co-op, which serves part of Putnam County.
[email protected]
By Chris DeVitto
Published: Saturday, December 19, 2009 1:43 AM EST
Plans for a $1.4 billion third coal-fired generating unit at Seminole Electric's Palatka facility have been scrapped, a company official said Friday.
"It is true we have canceled the Unit 3 project," said Jeff Fela, a spokesman for the Tampa-based utility cooperative. "This is a business decision and it is because of the uncertain regulatory and legal environment."
Fela said the company kept the project alive as long as it could.
"But it was in our members' best interest to pull the plug, so to speak," he said.
The original two-unit generating facility in Putnam County was built in 1984. Plans to add a third unit using clean coal technology were announced in 2006.
The 750-megawatt expansion would have boosted the Palatka plant's generating capacity by 60 percent, power that studies and the state said is needed by 2012.
The expansion would also have produced 50 full-time jobs and employed more than 1,500 construction workers during the four-year buildout, Fela said.
But the permitting process was lengthy and drew several challenges. After months of legal wrangling, in August 2008 officials at Seminole received a 178-page site certification needed for construction, signed by Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael W. Sole.
That decision came after a lengthy court battle between the utility and the state agency after the Crist administration began discouraging the building of coal-fired power plants.
The final site certification states that construction of Unit 3 will result in minimal adverse effects on human health, the environment and ecology of the surrounding land, water and its wildlife.
Seminole's final hurdle came in November 2008 with the filing of a lawsuit by the Sierra Club and another environmental group.
The Sierra Club was fighting the project by appealing the permit at the state level in the 1st District Court of Appeals and at the federal level at the Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Appeals Board.
Officials at Seminole responded by arguing the group's opposition came too late.
According to Fela, all court challenges by environmental groups had been resolved in Seminole's favor earlier this year.
The decision to cancel the project was disappointing news for Putnam County, Fela said.
"I know that they were counting on it and it's very sad," he said. "In today's business environment you have to do what's best for your members, especially if you are a nonprofit cooperative like us."
Even with the roadblocks, Seminole will continue to consider coal-fired generating stations.
"This doesn't change Seminole's view that coal will continue to play an important part in Seminole's energy portfolio," he said. "Because we will continue to operate units 1 and 2 at the Seminole generating station."
Putnam County Commission Chairman Chip Laibl said revenue from the third generating unit would have created needed funds for the county.
"The revenue stream certainly was much needed to do a lot of things that are pressing right now," he said. "The jobs associated with it were huge in the interim (construction period) and also equated to about 50 full-time jobs."
The county's budget will still remain balanced without revenue from Seminole, he added.
"We've been balancing the budget each year like it wasn't there - we never did count on the funds," he said. "But the revenue would have helped with our jail overcrowding and every aspect of the budget would have been enhanced by that."
Based in Tampa, Seminole Electric produces power for 10 electric cooperatives in Florida, including Clay Electric Co-op, which serves part of Putnam County.
[email protected]
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