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Thread: Dominion closing Wateree Station

  1. #1
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    Default Dominion closing Wateree Station

    Wateree power plant targeted for closure. How many jobs are on the chopping block?
    BY SAMMY FRETWELL

    Dominion Energy plans to close a 51-year-old Columbia-area power plant that has employed generations of workers but also has polluted groundwater and the Wateree River while burning coal to make electricity.

    Company plans show that two other coal-burning power plants in Berkeley and Orangeburg counties also would close in the next decade, a change that would effectively end South Carolina’s production of power through coal.

    Air pollution from coal plants is a leading cause of man-made climate change. If the Dominion plan becomes final, all of Dominion’s once robust fleet of coal-fired power plants would be closed by 2030. Santee Cooper and Duke Energy already have closed or announced plans to close coal plants in South Carolina.

    The impact on jobs remained unclear this week because Dominion declined to say how many employees might be affected by the proposed closures.

    But it could affect several hundred positions, if other coal plant closures are comparable. In announcing two years ago it would close a power station in Georgetown County, Santee Cooper said the change could affect 200 jobs.

    The state Office of Regulatory Staff said Tuesday night that the three Dominion plants employ about 225 people, with the largest employer being Wateree.

    A Dominion spokesman said the proposal is not final and is subject to change. The Orangeburg coal plant would close, but a natural gas plant also on the site would remain.. Dominion’s plans follow a ruling in late December by the state Public Service Commission. The PSC ordered the power company to study in more detail the possibility of closing coal plants and relying more on other forms of energy.

    Now, Dominion said it is moving to close the three plants under a comprehensive energy resource plan it must provide to the PSC.

    Closing the three coal stations is “the most reasonable and prudent resource plan to pursue at this time,’’ Dominion said in a recent filing with the PSC.

    The Virginia-headquartered company says it is looking to replace the South Carolina power plants with solar and natural gas-generated energy, as well as relying on battery storage.

    What impact the retirement of coal plants would have on rates remained unclear this past week, but the company said shifting from coal to more natural gas could mean the need for more gas pipelines — an issue sure to bring criticism from environmentalists.

    The company had been considering closing the coal fired power plants decades into the future, but last week’s filing with the PSC sped up the timetable following the December utility board ruling.

    Plants that generate electricity from coal have been used for decades, but have begun to close in recent years for a variety of reasons, among them their environmental impacts. At one time, South Carolina had about a dozen coal-fired power plants, but that number has been more than cut in half in recent years.

    Coal-fired power plants release mercury into the air that later rains back into rivers and contaminates fish. Such plants also contribute gases, such as carbon dioxide, that cause global warming.

    Water pollution also is an issue. The Wateree plant in lower Richland County was the subject of a lawsuit more than a decade ago over plans to build a landfill to serve the facility.

    Evidence presented in the trial showed that groundwater pollution from the coal plant had been extensive. At the same time, toxin-laden water was trickling from a coal ash waste pond into the Wateree River, upriver from Congaree National Park.

    The Wateree plant is a visible part of the landscape of eastern Richland County, with emissions stacks rising high above the rural farmland.

    According to the new Dominion Energy plan, the Wateree station would close in 2028, as would the company’s Williams’ plant in Berkeley County.

    “The plan … indicates that the most reasonable and prudent path for the company is a plan to retire Wateree and Williams stations in 2028,’’ the company said in an email Tuesday. “Natural gas, solar and battery storage resources would be added to the system.’’

    Dominion would close its Cope coal plant in Orangeburg County by 2030 and focus exclusively on using natural gas at the site. The plant now uses both coal and natural gas.


    The company’s statement said detailed studies are underway before another proposal goes to the Public Service Commission.

    Dominion, which acquired SCE&G two years ago, said in 2019 that it had no plans to retire its remaining three coal plants, including Wateree.

    Officials with the Sierra Club and the S.C. Coastal Conservation League said they are glad Dominion is moving away from coal. The three power plants are in largely minority communities that have suffered from power plant pollution, the Sierra Club said.

    “The closure of these plants will be a huge health benefit for families and children who have been forced to live, work and play in the shadow of coal-burning plants that pollute their air and the rivers where they boat and fish,’’ the club’s Will Harlan said in a news release. “These communities have fought long and hard for protections that others take for granted, and now there’s hope for real change.’’

    Still, he and the Conservation League’s Eddy Moore said relying too heavily on natural gas could be a problem. Some of the gas would come from fracking, a controversial practice of extracting natural gas from underground, the Sierra Club said.

    Both organizations favor greater use of renewable energy, namely wind and solar power. Moore said laying more pipelines for natural gas isn’t the answer.

    “We should be super cautious about putting our eggs in the gas basket,’’ Moore said.

    https://www.thestate.com/news/local/...ainstage_card7

  2. #2
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    That rural farmland they talk about gets covered in solar panels and then there are 0 jobs for the locals. How in the hell have such short sighted people come to power?
    cut\'em

  3. #3
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    It will only take 27,441 acres of solar farm to replace the energy produced by Wateree.
    Ephesians 2 : 8-9



    Charles Barkley: Nobody doesn't like meat.

  4. #4
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    27,441

    Would that number increase during a cloudy week, or is it factored in, or does cloud cover not effect solar energy production?

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    Prudent my Behind..... We all see what the Prudent Path was on the two failed Nuclear plants. To bad Canady's was closed or they'd still be pumping out Coal Fired Power.

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    The way I read that is they want us to become like texas in the next ice storm. How befitting that they want all red states to become green. Just wait until it's your turn to get that $10k power bill after you spent the qeek burning all of your furniture so your family didn't freeze to death. Never have I heard " death to america" ring so loudly.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rubberhead* View Post
    It will only take 27,441 acres of solar farm to replace the energy produced by Wateree.
    27,441 acres that once produced Renewable resources of some type, covered in Chinese solar panels that are bad for the environment...........

  8. #8
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    While pushing the rural populace off the land and into the cities, which is a huge goal of the socialists...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Whackumstackum View Post
    27,441 acres that once produced Renewable resources of some type, covered in Chinese solar panels that are bad for the environment...........
    Whackum is on point. It's not about cleaning the environment, it's about opening up a new line of business and enriching a new player.
    "Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery elements are for wise men to contemplate and for fools to pass by without consideration" -Izaak Walton

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    Quote Originally Posted by Whackumstackum View Post
    27,441 acres that once produced Renewable resources of some type, covered in Chinese solar panels that are bad for the environment...........
    And giving China access to the US power grid.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by JABIII View Post
    27,441

    Would that number increase during a cloudy week, or is it factored in, or does cloud cover not effect solar energy production?
    That's based on a annual "capacity factor" of solar so it does include an expected number of cloudy days. I'm only talking about energy, though. There's another component of managing a grid, capacity, where solar's contribution is basically zero. The closure of Wateree Station will still require 771 MW of new capacity, usually natural gas fired steam, to be added to the grid.
    Last edited by Rubberhead*; 02-24-2021 at 08:42 AM.
    Ephesians 2 : 8-9



    Charles Barkley: Nobody doesn't like meat.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Whackumstackum View Post
    27,441 acres that once produced Renewable resources of some type, covered in Chinese solar panels that are bad for the environment...........
    Haha -I began to type that but it starts getting complicated so I let it go, but you're completely right.
    Last edited by Rubberhead*; 02-24-2021 at 08:45 AM.
    Ephesians 2 : 8-9



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  13. #13
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    It is hard to believe that we have devolved so far as a society to accepting this retrograde future that we are going to hand the next generation... <<<

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    Quote Originally Posted by Southernduck View Post
    That rural farmland they talk about gets covered in solar panels and then there are 0 jobs for the locals. How in the hell have such short sighted people come to power?
    Because our past and present leaders let them. We have and continue to let the people in the minority decide our rules and legislation. Just think about this green new deal shit and lgbt shit. The people that support that stuff are way smaller of a group than those that don’t but still we listen to them and actually cave to their demands. It’s f***ing insane! The radicals are small in numbers but have the loudest voice. Politicians are scared of them and they are willing to give the farm away to keep their political seats.
    Last edited by Rabbitman09; 02-24-2021 at 09:07 AM.

  15. #15
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    The only ray of sunshine, (pun intended) that shines on this pile of shit, is the lowered demand for coal. The ray of sunshine being the coal miner's union pushing the coal miners to vote for Biden Harris in the last election.

    Workers of the world UNITE!
    "Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery elements are for wise men to contemplate and for fools to pass by without consideration" -Izaak Walton

  16. #16
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    The second someone says the words climate change in the context that it’s some sort of problem, I dismiss them as a hack.

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    At least nobody on Twidiot got their feelings hurt.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Fish View Post
    The second someone says the words climate change in the context that it’s some sort of problem, I dismiss them as a hack.
    I noticed that too right at the start. The writer acknowledges it as an undebatable truth right from the get go. The largest contributors to criteria air pollutants in SC is vehicles. SO2 and VOC emissions have significantly trended downward for years now.

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by BigBrother View Post
    The only ray of sunshine, (pun intended) that shines on this pile of shit, is the lowered demand for coal. The ray of sunshine being the coal miner's union pushing the coal miners to vote for Biden Harris in the last election.

    Workers of the world UNITE!
    If you’re gonna be dumb, you might as well hurt, too.

  20. #20
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    400 acres of woods produces enough oxygen for 7200 people to breath for one year.

    Also 400 acres take out the carbon emissions of 770 vehicles yearly.



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