Public Service Company of Oklahoma will retire the 465-MW Northeastern-4 coal unit in Oologah in early 2016 and retrofit the identical Northeastern-3 with new emission-control equipment under an environmental compliance plan PSO filed Wednesday with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
Northeastern-3 will be fitted with dry sorbent injection, activated carbon injection and a baghouse; the project is expected to cost about $175 million. Under the plan, the unit will be retired in late 2026.
PSO, a subsidiary of American Electric Power, in April reached an agreement in principle with the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Sierra Club. That deal was thrown into question in June when the US Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit issued a stay in implementation of EPA's regional haze plan while the court considered an appeal of the plan by the state of Oklahoma and Oklahoma Gas & Electric, the state's other large investor-owned utility.
In a statement, PSO said that the settlement agreement with EPA and the Sierra Club, which is included in its newly filed environmental compliance plan, addresses PSO's future obligations under both EPA's Regional Haze Rule and the federal agency's Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.
The environmental compliance plan also calls for PSO to install low-nitrogen-oxide burners at four older natural gas-fired units at its Northeastern, Southwestern and Comanche stations.
