Minnesota Power Completes Major Environmental Improvement Project at Its Largest Generating Station
Minnesota Power’s Boswell Energy Center will generate electricity more
cleanly and reliably for many years to come with the completion of a
major emissions reduction project.
The three-year environmental improvement project at Boswell Unit 4
recently wrapped up in Cohasset and is online and generating power to
meet customers’ energy needs. The environmental upgrade is reducing
mercury emissions by 90 percent and also significantly reducing
emissions of sulfur dioxide and particulates, meeting all state and
federal regulations. Unit 4, capable of producing 585 megawatts, is
Minnesota Power’s largest coal-fired generating unit. Minnesota Power is
an operating division of ALLETE Inc. (NYSE: ALE)
Total cost of the Boswell project is about $260 million. At the peak of
construction, local trades and other workers numbered 600 on-site.
Minnesota Power integrated the new emissions control equipment with
existing systems during a 10-week outage this fall.
“The new state-of-the-art technology at Boswell 4 will make the
generating unit among the cleanest and most efficient in the nation
while helping to preserve the reliable and affordable power our
customers expect,” said Al Hodnik, ALLETE chairman, president and CEO.
“The project is the latest achievement in our initiative to further
lower emissions that began in 2006, and it demonstrates Minnesota
Power’s commitment to a balanced energy future through its EnergyForward
strategy to help transform the nation’s energy landscape.”
EnergyForward is the company’s resource strategy to diversify its
power supply to a balanced energy mix of one-third coal, one-third
renewable energy and one-third natural gas. Minnesota Power’s renewable
energy portfolio has already enabled the company to meet the state of
Minnesota’s renewable energy standard of 25 percent by 2025 a decade
early.
“Baseload coal generation remains an important energy supply component
supporting Minnesota Power’s mission to deliver safe, reliable and
affordable electricity to its customers, even as we add more renewable
energy and natural gas and achieve energy savings through conservation,”
said Minnesota Power Chief Operating Officer Brad Oachs. “With the
retrofit finished, ahead of schedule and under budget, Boswell 4 is
cost-effectively serving customers, including the mines, paper mills and
other large industrial customers, with cleaner power. It’s ready to
perform at the highest level.”
In the past decade, Minnesota Power has invested more than $600 million
to cut emissions across its system. The utility has reduced mercury
emissions by 90 percent while lowering sulfur, nitrogen oxide and fine
particulates by more than 70 percent compared with 2005 levels.
That investment also included the installation of a high efficiency
steam turbine at Boswell 4 resulting in 60 megawatts of increased power
capacity with no additional emissions. In November 2015, the Minnesota
Pollution Control Agency recognized Minnesota Power for its
leadership in reducing mercury emissions.
The Boswell 4 environmental upgrade involved replacing the existing wet
scrubber and particulate control technology with a semi-dry system that
uses less water, installing a powdered activated carbon injection system
to capture flue gas mercury, and adding a fabric filter to further
control particulates. A new 25,000-square-foot building houses a
nine-module Alstom NID system that removes mercury, sulfur dioxide and
particulates. Ash management entails the transport and storage of ash in
a state approved ash cell that complies with applicable rules. The
project meets the requirements of Minnesota’s Mercury Emissions
Reduction Act and the federal MATS rule (Mercury and Air Toxics
Standards).
Minnesota Power provides electric service within a 26,000-square-mile
area in northeastern Minnesota, supporting comfort, security and quality
of life for 144,000 customers, 16 municipalities and some of the largest
industrial customers in the United States. More information can be found
at www.mnpower.com.
ALE-ENRG
The statements contained in this release and statements that ALLETE
may make orally in connection with this release that are not historical
facts, are forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ
materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and investors
are directed to the risks discussed in documents filed by ALLETE with
the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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