TVA to start using scrubbers at plant

TVA Kingston scrubbers cut sulfur dioxide from nine boilers using flue-gas desulfurization, reducing sulfates, haze, and regional emissions at the coal-fired plant to improve air quality across Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has begun operating two smokestack scrubbers at its Kingston Fossil Plant.

The scrubbers will reduce sulfur dioxide emissions from the plant's nine boilers, supporting TVA's clean coal generation goals across the fleet, which can create sulfates that affect air quality.

Kingston was one of four TVA coal plants in Tennessee and Alabama involved in a federal lawsuit brought by North Carolina over air quality.

TVA said that five of its 11 coal-fired power plants have scrubbers installed. Construction on the two scrubbers began in 2006 as part of broader EPA claims settlements efforts across TVA operations, and the first scrubber at Kingston was completed in December and the second was completed in April for a total cost of $475 million.

TVA has reduced its total sulfur dioxide emissions by 91 percent since 1977 amid clean-air pact cost debates across the region by operating scrubbers and burning low sulfur coal.

"We now have state-of-the-art control equipment on all of our units at Kingston, allowing us to generate the electricity needed by our customers," Kingston Plant Manager Leslie Nale said in a statement. "This translates into cleaner air in the Great Smoky Mountains and across the region."

TVA is the nation's largest public utility, supplying electricity to about 8.7 million consumers, and it has weighed buying Kentucky coal for plants as demand evolves, in Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia.

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