Biomass Power
Biomass facilities rely partially or completely on renewable fuel in their thermal generation process. In Dominion’s electric utility service territory in Virginia, this renewable fuel is primarily waste wood or "slash".
The Company currently owns and operates an 83 MW biomass fuel plant at its Pittsylvania facility in Hurt, VA. Additionally, the Company is constructing the 585 MW VCHEC facility, which will be able to utilize up to 20% of its fuel from biomass resources.
The Company also announced plans to convert the Altavista, Hopewell, and Southampton coal-fired power stations, each currently rated at 63 MW (net) capacity, to biomass fuel rated at 51 MW (net) each.
The conversions are expected to provide strong customer value at a cost that is significantly lower than building an equivalent capacity of new greenfield biomass facilities. The conversions, pending approval by the Virginia DEQ and SCC, could begin burning clean biomass in 2013.
Pittsylvania Power Station
Dominion's Pittsylvania Power Station, an 83-megawatt facility in Hurt, Va., is one of the largest biomass power stations on the East Coast. Dominion purchased Pittsylvania Power Station in 2004. Pittsylvania’s sole source for producing electricity is from burning wood chips (predominately waste wood) and mill residues such as sawdust. More than 90 percent of its supply is waste wood that would otherwise be left in forests as "slash", dumped into landfills, or inefficiently burned.
At Pittsylvania, leftovers from sawmills, logging operations and paper mills are put to good use providing electricity. The station supplies enough electricity to power about 20,000 houses.
Two enormous, piles of wood chips - each about the size of a four-story building - are among the first things noticed by visitors arriving at the station. An estimated 3,300 tons of waste wood is unloaded each day at Pittsylvania, which translates to about 150 truckloads.
High-lifts dump the wood chips from the trucks where dozers move it onto a system of conveyer belts that eventually lead to three stoker boilers that burn the wood. Just as with coal-fired power stations, steam is generated to power the turbines that produce electricity.
Fly ash produced at the station is reused as fertilizer at local farms and as landfill cover.
Similar to other renewable stations, the effects of Pittsylvania’s emissions are more environmentally friendly because the station produces very low levels of sulfur dioxide. Another key advantage of waste wood fuel is that it is "carbon neutral," meaning it does not result in any net addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
Although biomass burned as a fuel emits carbon dioxide, scientists consider the process to be "carbon neutral" because an equal amount of carbon is released into the atmosphere that would have been returned to it when the trees decayed as part of their natural life cycle.
The Pittsylvania station is part of Dominion’s commitment to reaching the Virginia target of 15 percent of renewable generation by 2025.
NYSE : (February 3, 2012) D 50.38 -0.13
