Some utilities, including FPL, which generates power mostly with natural gas and nuclear, already meet the CPP mandates. The Seminole co-op can be forgiven a sense of irony in all this. And for some of Florida's 15 coal-fired generating plants, the CPP is moot because they'll age out of existence as the rules phase in. If the owners of a private-sector manufacturing business s down a plant of similar economic consequence to a community like Putnam even for valid business or competitive reasons you can best believe that the barometer of outrage would be spiking in the red zone. The EPA, the suits say, is trying to exercise powers it doesn't have to re-engineer the nation's power generation system. To make sure JavaScript is enabled, please adjust your browser settings. It was shipped to SJRPP and unloaded at a Blount Islandfacility owned and operated by the plant. But market forces, energy conservation and existing regulations were already curbing the use of coal. Similar to the CEMI-5 metric that has been utilized by JEA since 2014, the new CEMI-4 metric has helped us improve on our already unbeatable performance of low extended outage frequency and duration rates. Tourism is booming in Tampa Bay. In announcing the project in September, Seminole said the new plant is part of an effort to diversify Seminoles portfolio of energy sources, with the effort including a reduced reliance on coal and increased solar power. At $32,497, median household income lags the statewide median by about $15,000 a year. Construction of the Seminole plant would start in 2019 or early 2020, with completion about three years later, according to the documents filed at the Division of Administrative Hearings. The original planned retirement for the Power Park was 2052, but the utilities decided to accelerate the shutdown because the facility was only operating at half of its capacity, and natural gas has emerged as a less-expensive fuel than coal for generating electricity. That particular fuel is, to put it mildly, out of favor with the current administration in Washington. Unit 1 began commercial production March 27, 1987. Have you made any charitable donations to a Florida non-profit organization in 2022? Pollution from the Seminole plant and 14 other coal plants in Florida accounts for more than 300 deaths a year in the state, according to one estimate. The decision to build the power park on the Northside originally sparked some backlash. Original color photograph: Private Collection of Harry L. Jaeger. The plant's presence is felt and seen in another way, however. Consumers got hit with a double whammy. When the walls come tumbling down this year in synchronized explosive blasts, the demolition will likewise be one of the most transformative the city has ever seen. The closure of the plant is eliminating 200 jobs. The most recent unemployment rate was 6.4%, compared to the statewide average of 4.7%. It may not come to that. We all watched it being built and a lot of people grew up with it.. When JEA wins, you win. TALLAHASSEE | With the utility industry continuing toward increased use of natural gas to fuel power plants, an electric cooperative has started seeking a key state approval to build a new plant in Northeast Florida. The Putnam County facility was built as a coal plant in the first place because the federal government in the late 1970s wanted to lessen dependence on foreign oil and burn cheap, domestically available coal to keep electricity prices low for residents of rural areas served by co-ops. Can the labor market keep up? JEA has begun process of de-electrifying the coal-fired plant, clearing the way for Total Wrecking and Environmental Inc. to start demolition in March. Nationally, for example, electric generation from natural gas surpassed that from coal for the first time last year. Or they can require the plants to meet a target for the total amount "mass" of carbon dioxide produced. There is a bit of regret of a passing of an era, he said. Meanwhile, the electricity produced by the plant amounts to more than half the power generated by the Seminole co-op, which serves nine utilities and 1. Taylor said hes glad JEA wont leave the coal-fired plant standing as a decrepit monstrosity. He said he hopes the property gets a second life that will generate jobs again, such as a solar farm or some other kind of cutting-edge use. 6 million customers in mostly rural, low-income areas in 42 Florida counties. Tampa-based Seminole Electric Cooperative provides wholesale power to nine electric cooperatives throughout the state, stretching from Talquin Electric Cooperative in areas around Tallahassee to Glades Electric Cooperative in South Central Florida. Seminole CEO and General Manager Lisa D. Johnson said at the time that the plan is a balanced approach that will let us generate power more competitively with natural gas, while managing the risk and unpredictability of potential future policy changes relating to carbon emissions associated with coal.. They started at 2.73% a year ago. Not so, however, the Seminole plant, whose lifespan was expected to extend to 2045. It took took six years to build at a cost of $1.45 billion. Constructing a gas-fired plant (and a gas pipeline) to replace the coal plant would entail millions more in borrowing and further drive up the electric bills of the co-op's customers. "Among all industrial sources of air pollution, none poses greater risks to human health and the environment than coal-fired power plants," reads a 2010 report by the Clean Air Task Force. For consumers, buying power has almost been cut in half.
The commission also said it would benefit the environment by phasing out coal-related emissions. At maximum capacitySJRPP consumed approximately 4.5 million tons of coal per year. The Department of Environmental Protection sent the proposal to the Division of Administrative Hearings, where an administrative law judge will hold hearings on the proposal. Thedecommissioned plantis located on a 1,600 acre site in the northeast section of Jacksonville, Florida. An additional long term Purchase Power Agreement between the two utilities allowed each to share the power output and operating expenses equally as a 50/50 split. Northside resident Bobby Taylor said it will be a bittersweet moment when the towers bite the dust. Learn more about JEA's air and water quality efforts, including air quality at our electric generating plants, surface water quality and your drinking water quality. Florida Power & Light, for example, is seeking approvals for a new Dania Beach plant that would be one in a series of FPL projects in recent years to build natural-gas plants and shut down older facilities. Now theyre at 5.52%. Putnam County, about an hour south of Jacksonville on the west side of the St. Johns River, is Florida's poorest county. Florida Trend Media Company490 1st Ave SSt Petersburg, FL 33701727.821.5800.
Solace, however, won't put groceries on the table. The plant's history is captured in this video: CEMI-4 is a new metric that stands for Customers Experiencing More Than Four Outages of one minute or more in the past year. From its two giant smokestacks, fat billows of exhaust mostly water vapor pour relentlessly into the sky, the byproduct of the 10,000 tons of coal burned there each day. Also, Duke Energy is building a natural-gas plant at Crystal River. But over a period of time, it employed a lot of people in good middle-class jobs., Rare historic photos of St. Johns River Power Park, The size and shape of the cooling towers often left visitors proclaiming, Wow, youve got a nuclear power plant over here.. The Childrens Village will also serve as home to other community-based non-profits offering resources and programming to both sheltered and neighborhood children. Much of that land will soon be up for sale. On the outskirts of Palatka, Putnam County's seat, sits one of the county's few significant economic engines, the Seminole Electric Cooperative power plant. The Clean Power Plan standards set out in August by the Environmental Protection Agency let states choose: They can require power plants to reduce the "rate" of carbon dioxide produced per megawatt generated. Florida Power and Light Company's Palatka Station. RICHES of Central Florida accessed July 21, 2022, https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/items/show/7742. Florida TaxWatch looks at Census 2020 and what Florida's business and community leaders need to know, Mortgage demand drops to a 22-year low as higher interest rates, inflation crush Central Florida homebuyers, Not a scam: Receive a $450 check in the mail from Gov. Rescuers save juvenile dolphin in Clearwater and take it to safety. Seminole announced plans for the new Putnam County plant in September, and the filing last week seeks site certification under a state law known as the Florida Electrical Power Plant Siting Act. The decision to build a natural-gas plant is part of a broader trend in Floridas utility industry, as natural gas has been relatively cheap and as power-plant operators have faced pressure to reduce carbon emissions. They're paid decent wages an average of about $75,000 and their spending creates at least a few hundred more jobs in the area. The plant is financed through 2042, so the co-op and its ratepayers will be on the hook for several hundred million dollars in debt. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. The plant is the county's biggest taxpayer and plays a big role in the community, sponsoring everything from livestock shows to fundraisers for local causes. Ron DeSantis, they wanted to know: Is it a scam? No less a liberal constitutional scholar than Harvard's Laurence Tribe has joined the fight against the CPP. That has included projects at Cape Canaveral, Riviera Beach, Port Everglades and in Okeechobee County. Seminole Electric Cooperative, Inc., filed a proposal last week with the state Department of Environmental Protection to build a 1,050-megawatt natural-gas plant north of Palatka in Putnam County, according to documents posted on the state Division of Administrative Hearings website. The hospitality industry, long plagued by low wages and high turnover rates, reckons with how to retain employees and attract new talent. The plant says there's no existing technology that will enable it to meet the CPP standards. Times change. Total Wrecking and Environmental, which is based in Buffalo, N.Y., submitted the low bid to win the contract. About 300 people work there. Interest rates have doubled. The rules currently envision some kind of pollution-credit trading among states; it's conceivable that the trading could be extended to intra-state deals between, for example, FPL and the Seminole co-op, as long as Florida met its statewide goals. The plant would replace one of two 650-megawatt coal-fired plants operating at the site. JEA says the goal is to attract another use after demolition finishes. This site will not function properly without JavaScript enabled. During an October hearing on a nuclear-power issue, for instance, Florida Public Service Commission member Gary Clark said the states current dependence on natural gas is extremely alarming to me.. And as renewable energy generation and storage technology improves, coal's share of the power generation pie is likely to decline further, with or without CPP. 2022 www.jacksonville.com. JEA owns 80 percent and FP&L the remaining 20 percent of the Power Park, which began electricity production in 1987. The main event of the $17.7-million teardown and site clearance will come sometime in the summer, when demolition turns toward taking down the two cooling towers that each soar 460 feet in the air, the rough equivalent of 33-story office towers. JEA got seven bids, ranging from $17.7 million to $50.6 million, for the demolition job. It's hard not to wonder, however, about what unforeseen consequences our children may face from current policies implemented, as previously, with good intentions. Digital reproduction of original color photograph. Overall, Florida must cut the rate of carbon dioxide emissions generated per megawatt hour by 26% by 2030. Among coal plants, it's one of the cleaner ones, and it has spent more than $250 million in the past decade on environmental control equipment. Many wonder how best to ride out COVID's next wave, University of Florida surpasses $1 billion in research spending for first time in 2022, Florida ranks among top 10 states of America's most stable housing markets, Educator and civil rights leader represents Florida in Capitol statuary. The U.S. Supreme Court has stopped the EPA from implementing the plan until courts determine whether it's constitutional. All rights reserved. JEA joined forces with Florida Power & Light to build St. Johns River Power Park on a 1,600-acre site. Coping with climate change, he says, is vital but "does not justify using unconstitutional means.". All rights reserved. The facility was jointly owned by JEA 80% share, and Florida Power and Light 20% portion. In addition to using implosions to bring down the two cooling towers in the summer, the demolition will use explosives in the fall to pulverize a 640-foot tall stack that contains two brick chimneys. The state Public Services Commission gave its approval in September, finding it would save FP&L customers money in the long run by releasing the utility from purchasing electricity from the Power Park. More than 27 states and industry groups, including the Seminole co-op and its trade association, have filed nearly 40 lawsuits challenging the rule.
The report builds on the taxpayer research institutes extensive work on the 2020 Census, focusing on how the recently reported 3.48 percent undercount nearly 750,000 people significantly impacts Floridas taxpayers. The plant was installed in 1976. Unemployed plant workers, presumably, would take solace in knowing their jobs were sacrificed in the fight against global warming. The terms include FP&L making a $90-million shutdown payment to JEA, which the utility received this month. Boost now or wait? If it's forced to close, it says, there are more whammies involved than the loss of jobs in Putnam County. When the plant wasconstructed in the early 1980s, it was the largest construction project in Jacksonville's history. Let's be clear. The Florida Power and Light Company's Power at Combined Efficiency (PACE) 520, which consists of two mirror-image PACE 260 plants, in Palatka, Florida. 2022 www.staugustine.com. Coal is a dirty fuel. Until it closed in January 2018, the St. Johns River Power Park (SJRPP) was a large coal-fired electric generating plant featuring two turbine/generators that supplied 632,000 KW to the transmission grid. See our achievements, Commercial Fats, Oils, and Grease Requirements, Commercial Water, Wastewater or Irrigation Bill Adjustments, Fire Hydrant Meter Policy and Applications, Jacksonville Small Emerging Business Program, Collections, Disconnections, and Unauthorized Utility Use, FOG Program Small Trap Maintenance Requirements, Pretreatment Program, Permits, Surveys and Applications, JEA Landlord Agreement Program Adding and Removing Addresses, Guidelines for Permit Requirements and Permit Modifications, Sewer Flow Metering System Establishment Checklist, Wastewater Flow Meter Annual Calibration FAQs, Capacity Fee Calculator - Average Daily Flow, Underground Electric Distribution Standards, CEMI-4 & CEMI-5 - Electric Reliability Upgrades, Annual Disclosure Report - Electric System, Annual Disclosure Report - Water and Sewer and District Energy System, 2021.02.17 JEA Announces New Leadership Team, 2021.03.11 JEA Receives First Place Safety Award from Florida Municipal Electric Association, 2021.06.15 JEA Names Theodore B. Phillips Chief Financial Officer, 2021.07.13 JEA Announces New COO and VP of Financial Services, 2021.08.17 JEA Builds Out Leadership Team with Hiring of Chief External Affairs Officer, 2021.09.15 JEA Names New Chief Information Officer, VP of Technical Services, 2021.09.30 Ricardo Rick Morales III Appointed to JEA Board of Directors, 2021.09.30 Ricky Erixton, JEA Vice President of Electric Systems, Named to SERC Reliability Board of Directors, 2021.11.03 JEA Receives Statewide Recognition for Programs that Build Community, 2022.01.06 JEA Names its First Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, 2022.01.07 JEA Reducing Carbon Emissions with Closure of Plant Scherer Coal-fired Unit, 2022.01.17 Statement on Holiday Road Sewer Overflow, 2022.01.27 JEA Names Mark Stultz Vice President, Communications, 2022.02.11 JEA Honored as Outstanding Utility by Florida Urban Forestry Council, 2022.04.08 Steven Selders Promoted to JEA Vice President, Application Delivery and Enterprise Architecture, 2022.04.26 JEA Managing Director & CEO Jay Stowe, Appointed to Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council, 2022.06.01 JEA Partnering with Customers to be Ready for 2022 Hurricane Season, 2022.06.08 JEA Announces Next Generation of Customer Experience Delivery, 2022.06.13 JEA Presents Environmental Stewardship Award to Evoqua Water Technologies, CEMI-4 & CEMI-5 - Electric Reliability Upgrades, 2022.01.06 JEA Names its First Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, 2022.04.26 JEA Managing Director & CEO Jay Stowe, Appointed to Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council. Only about one in 10 of the county's 72,000 residents has a bachelor's degree; more than one in four lives in poverty. DeSantis? But the move toward natural-gas plants has drawn some concerns that the state will become over-reliant on the fuel. So far, however, a government regulatory policy that could devastate Putnam County's economy and raise electric bills for more than 1 million residents of rural areas throughout Florida seems to be getting the benefit of the doubt. The standards are aimed squarely at cutting coal use. And it's conceivable the federal government might help rural co-ops pay for new plants that use non-coal sources. Unit 2 was completed a year later and began its operation May 27, 1988. Video Picks | Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. The St. Johns River Power Park was the biggest construction project in city history when its hourglass-shaped cooling towers rose from the Northside and became fixtures on the city landscape, visible from miles away.
Viewpoints@FloridaTrend. The Clearwater Fire and Rescue department worked Wednesday to help an injured juvenile dolphin under Pier 60. PACE combined-cycle plants are comprised of two Westinghouse 501 (W501) gas turbines and a 100 MW Westinghouse steam turbine. The site will be available for other industrial and commercial uses, JEA Director of Environmental Services Paul Steinbrecher told the citys Environmental Protection Board this week. Of course, even if the CPP goes into effect, it can be tweaked between now and 2030.
A lot of people felt like they were putting this dirty industry on the Northside because we were the backwoods of Jacksonville, Taylor said. Coal to fuel the plant was supplied primarily from Columbia, South America. Dont toss it, cash it. Copyright 2022 Trend Magazines Inc. All rights reserved. After Floridians began receiving $450 checks in the mail from Florida Gov. JEA and FP&L announced last March that they had agreed to terms for the closure. JEA expects to finish the demolition by December 2019. Florida Power and Light Company's Palatka Station. Many longtime employeesbegan working at the plant before it opened and did not leave until it closed 30 years later.