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Spruance power station is an operating power station of at least 114-megawatts (MW) in Richmond, City of Richmond, Virginia, United States with multiple units, some of which are not currently operating. It is also known as Spruance Genco power station, Cogentrix of Richmond.
Location
Table 1: Project-level location details
| Plant name | Location | Coordinates (WGS 84) |
|---|---|---|
| Spruance power station | Richmond, City of Richmond, Virginia, United States | 37.455556, -77.4308 (exact) |
The map below shows the exact location of the power station.
Unit-level coordinates (WGS 84):
- Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3, Unit 4: 37.455556, -77.4308
Project Details
Table 2: Unit-level details
| Unit name | Status | Fuel(s) | Capacity (MW) | Technology | CHP | Start year | Retired year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | Retired | coal: bituminous | 57.4 | subcritical | – | 1992 | 2021 |
| Unit 2 | Retired | coal: bituminous | 57.4 | subcritical | – | 1992 | 2021 |
| Unit 3, timepoint 1 | Retired | coal: bituminous, other: tires | 57.4 | subcritical | yes[1] | 1992 | 2019 |
| Unit 3, timepoint 2 | Operating[1] | fossil gas: natural gas[1] | 57.4[1] | steam turbine[1] | yes[1] | 2019[1] | – |
| Unit 4, timepoint 1 | Retired | coal: bituminous, other: tires | 57.4 | subcritical | yes[1] | 1992 | 2019 |
| Unit 4, timepoint 2 | Operating[1] | fossil gas: natural gas[1] | 57.4[1] | steam turbine[1] | yes[1] | 2019[1] | – |
CHP is an abbreviation for Combined Heat and Power. It is a technology that produces electricity and thermal energy at high efficiencies. Coal units track this information in the Captive Use section when known.
Table 3: Unit-level ownership and operator details
| Unit name | Owner | Parent |
|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | Spruance Genco LLC [100%] | Ares Holdings |
| Unit 2 | Spruance Genco LLC [100%] | Ares Holdings |
| Unit 3, timepoint 1 | Spruance Operating Services LLC [100%] | Dupont Inc [100.0%] |
| Unit 3, timepoint 2 | Spruance Operating Services LLC [100%] | Dupont Inc [100.0%] |
| Unit 4, timepoint 1 | Spruance Operating Services LLC [100%] | Dupont Inc [100.0%] |
| Unit 4, timepoint 2 | Spruance Operating Services LLC [100%] | Dupont Inc [100.0%] |
Unit-level fuel conversion details:
Unit 3: Converted from coal to fossil gas in 2019.
Unit 4: Converted from coal to fossil gas in 2019.
Unit Retirement
The power station was planned for closure in 2017. On April 18, 2017, plant owner Ares Holdings submitted an updated deactivation notice to PJM Interconnection with an October 31, 2020 deactivation date.[2]
According to the US EIA database, Units 1 and 2 are scheduled for retirement in January 2021, and Units 3 and 4 were converted to natural gas in 2019.[3]
According to an IEEFA article from October 2019 titled "Coal-fired Power Generation in Freefall Across Southeast U.S." both remaining coal units of the Spruance power station are "operating in name only; neither [unit] has generated any electricity since March [2020] and neither has posted a capacity factor of more than 9% in the past 12 months."[4]
Units 1 and 2 retired on January 12, 2021.[5]
Ownership
The plant was owned by Cogentrix of Goldman Sachs. In 2007, Energy Investors Funds (EIF Management), an established private equity fund manager that invests in the US energy and electricity sector, announced that its United States Power Fund III completed the acquisition of 80% of Cogentrix Energy's interest in 14 power plants, including Spruance.[6]
In 2014, the plant was bought by Ares Holdings LP as part of its buyout of energy infrastructure asset manager EIF Management LLC (now known as Ares EIF Management LLC). PJM lists the owner of the plant as Ares affiliate Newark Energy Center LLC.[7]
Emissions Data
- 2006 CO2 Emissions: 2,336,209 tons
- 2006 SO2 Emissions:
- 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
- 2006 NOx Emissions:
- 2005 Mercury Emissions:
Spruance and Environmental Justice
Cogentrix of Richmond has 31,903 residents within a 3-mile radius and 1,977 within a one-mile radius. Within the 3-mile radius, 59.4% of residents are non-white with a per capita income of $17,627, below the U.S. per capita income of $21,587,[8] raising issues around environmental justice and coal. Cogentrix of Richmond is among over 100 coal plants near residential areas.
Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Spruance
In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants.[9] Fine particle pollution consists of a complex mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Among these particles, the most dangerous are those less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and illnesses are major examples of coal's external costs, i.e. uncompensated harms inflicted upon the public at large. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. To monetize the health impact of fine particle pollution from each coal plant, Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.[10]
Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Spruance
| Type of Impact | Annual Incidence | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths | 11 | $78,000,000 |
| Heart attacks | 16 | $1,700,000 |
| Asthma attacks | 180 | $9,000 |
| Hospital admissions | 8 | $180,000 |
| Chronic bronchitis | 7 | $2,900,000 |
| Asthma ER visits | 9 | $3,000 |
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011
Citizen groups
- Appalachian Voices
- Blue Ridge Earth First
- Concerned Citizens of Giles County
- Do Something Charlottesville
- Chesapeake Climate Action Virginia
- Mountain Justice Blacksburg
- Sierra Club Virginia Chapter
- Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards
- Virginia Tech Beyond Coal
- Wise Energy for Virginia
Articles and Resources
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 https://web.archive.org/web/20200612191408/https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/eia860m/archive/xls/november_generator2019.xlsx. Archived from the original on 12 June 2020.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ↑ "Future deactivations," PJM Interconnection LLC, updated June 1, 2017
- ↑ Electric Generator Inventory, US EIA, January 2020
- ↑ "Coal-fired Power Generation in Freefall Across Southeast U.S." IEEFA, October 2019, page 33
- ↑ "Generation Deactivations" PJM.com, accessed April 9, 2021
- ↑ "Energy Investors Funds buys power plants from Goldman's Cogentrix Energy". Private Equity Wire. 2007-11-21. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
- ↑ Sweeney, Darren (2017-05-08). "Asset manager to shut down NC, Va. coal plants". SP Global. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ United States - Income and Poverty in 1999: 2000, U.S. Census Bureau, 2000.
- ↑ "The Toll from Coal: An Updated Assessment of Death and Disease from America's Dirtiest Energy Source," Clean Air Task Force, September 2010.
- ↑ "Technical Support Document for the Powerplant Impact Estimator Software Tool," Prepared for the Clean Air Task Force by Abt Associates, July 2010
Additional data
To access additional data, including interactive maps of the power stations, downloadable datasets, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Plant Tracker and the Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.
