James Mccarten
Hamilton Spectator
September 15, 2000

May prolong coal-fired plants

Environmentalists greeted a $250 million emissions-reduction plan by Ontario’s largest power producer yesterday with scorn and suspicion.

Ontario Power Generation plans to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions at its coal-fired Nanticoke, Lambton and Lakeview stations by 13,000 tonnes a year, president and chief executive Ron Osborne announced yesterday.

New technology to cut emissions at the plants will be among OPG’s largest capital projects, said Osborne, second only to the restart of the Pickering A nuclear plant, shut down amid safety concerns in 1997.

"The solution to the smog problem needs to involve the electricity industry, other industries, the transportation sector and all consumers," Osborne told the Mississauga Board of Trade during a luncheon speech.

"We will not stop making these investments. We will continue to look for other opportunities for cost-effective emission reductions."

But the plan to install the technology — called Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) units — at three aging fossil-fuel plants has its critics.

Ontario Premier Mike Harris has already assured local officials that the Lakeview plant in Mississauga must be converted to natural gas before it can be sold.

"What they’ve got here is a 1985 K-Car that’s on the market, and OPG has decided to throw a lot of money at the exhaust system," said Tom Adams, of energy watchdog Energy Probe.

"You’ve got to wonder, is it good money after bad?"

But the investment makes good sense, since converting the plants to natural gas isn’t something that could happen overnight, Osborne said in an interview.

"Even if somebody told us tomorrow to convert all of these to gas as quickly as you can, we’re going to be burning coal in at least four of these units seven, eight, nine years from now," Osborne said.

"Anything beyond a couple of years means that it’s imperative that we clean up our act on this stuff, and we’re going to do that."

Jack Gibbons of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance said he believes that by investing in antiquated facilities, OPG is trying to force Harris to "allow them to extend the life of their coal-fired power plants."

Yesterday’s announcement was made while both Harris and Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion were in Australia, Gibbons noted.

"This investment makes no sense if you’re just about to sell on the condition that it be scrapped and converted to natural gas."

Osborne, who denied having any sinister motives in timing the announcement, said it would be unwise to rush into a gas conversion when fuel prices are so unstable.

The environmental benefits of the investment could be outweighed by its relative cost, said Adams, noting that the SCR units don’t reduce toxic metals like mercury, arsenic and lead.

"It’s not a clear win for the environment, and it’s a lot of money."

Once the plants begin producing less nitrogen oxide, they will be used to a greater extent, generating more pollutants that aren’t being adequately screened, he added.

Between nuclear and hydroelectric generation, 75 per cent of OPG’s power results in no smog-producing emissions, Osborne said.

Including its time as Ontario Hydro, the company — responsible for just 12 per cent of Ontario’s nitrogen oxide emissions — has spent more than $1 billion on fossil plant emissions over the last 15 years, he said.

"As a result, today we produce as much power from our fossil plants as we did in the early 1980’s, but with 60 per cent less acid gas emissions."