American Electric Power, one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, started operating a 20 MW coal-fired Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) plant in September 2009.  It is currently the largest facility of its kind in the United States, and the success or failure of this operation will likely have a major impact on the viability of this technology and the future role of coal in the U.S.’s and the world’s low carbon emissions future, as well as impact the adoption rates of nuclear and renewables.   In this follow-up interview, Nick Akins, the Executive Vice President of Power Generation for American Electric Power (AEP), speaks about the status of the operation and what it means for scale-up timetables and ultimate price and energy penalties that affect the viability of coal-fired CCS.   

B-Green Collaborative: When exactly did AEP start operation of its CCS plant?

Akins: The 20-megawatt CCS installation at our Mountaineer Plant in New Haven, W.Va., started capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) Sept. 1, 2009, and we began injecting CO2 into the geologic formations Oct. 1, 2009.

B-Green Collaborative: Does AEP consider this test successful so far?  What have you learned about energy consumption associated with CCS?  About the permanence of storing the carbon below ground?

Akins: So far, we have been pleased with the performance of the equipment. There have been some engineering challenges as we have been operating the system, but that is to be expected with a first-of-a-kind endeavor, and they haven’t been substantial.

Our contractual obligations with Alstom, the technology developer and our partner on this project, prevent us from discussing the specific energy consumption of the process, and it is still early. However, we can say that we are in the range of the 15 to 30 percent energy penalty that we were expecting. It is important to realize that this is a process validation installation, so it is not optimized for efficiency, but rather for flexibility to adjust process conditions. As a result, at this size it will never reach optimal efficiency.  However, we will be able to collect data to gain a solid understanding of the energy consumption that a commercial installation will require.

We are only at the beginning of collecting data about the injected CO2. As we inject CO2 into the formations over the coming months, specifics about the maximum injection rates per well and total injectivity will be determined. We also will continue to systematically step through injection tests and analyze data.

B-Green Collaborative: In a previous interview with the B-Green Collaborative, you indicated that a successful CCS test at the Mountaineer Plant would be followed by a 235 MW to 300 MW commercial scale test at an AEP facility.  Has that decision been made yet?  If so, what will the location of the new plant be and when would you expect it to be operational?  If the decision has not been made yet, can you let us know when you expect the decision will be made?

Akins: We were extremely pleased to be notified Dec. 4, 2009, that we were selected to receive $334 million in funding through the Department of Energy’s Clean Coal Power Initiative to scale-up the CCS process at our Mountaineer Plant. We plan to build the 235-megawatt installation of the chilled ammonia carbon capture and storage process at Mountaineer and expect it to be operational in 2015. At this scale, we will capture and store approximately 1.5 million metric tones of CO2 annually.  Of course, the lessons learned from our existing 20-megawatt project will be incorporated in the 235-megawatt commercial scale project to further improve overall efficiency.

B-Green Collaborative: Are you able to forecast yet what the incremental cost of electricity in cents/kwh would be from a commercial sized coal plant with CCS to your customers?   How would that compare to the total costs your customers currently pay for electricity from natural gas, wind or nuclear power?

Akins: We anticipate that the cost of electricity from a coal-fired power plant with a CCS technology retrofit will be competitive with electricity generated from a new nuclear plant or a natural gas plant that is also equipped with CCS, although the future cost of natural gas and the ultimate ability to access shale gas reserves is an unknown. We generate electricity from our coal plants today for about $0.04 per kilowatthour (kWh). We see CCS installation increasing that price to about $0.08 per kWh, and we don’t see electricity from new nuclear, natural gas with CCS or wind being generated for less than $0.08 per kWh.  However, we believe it is important to view our future generation resources as a portfolio mix of all of these sources.

B-Green Collaborative: What is AEP’s current view about the future of CCS?  Will it play a major role in the future power generation of AEP’s coal plants?

Akins: We believe that CCS is critical for the future of coal-fueled generation and the energy security of this country through the use of coal as an energy resource.  We anticipate retrofitting up to 75 percent of our existing 25,600 megawatts of coal-fueled generation with CCS technology by 2025 or 2030. The plants we retrofit will be our largest, most efficient generating units that have already been retrofit to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury. The remaining 25 percent of our existing coal-fired generating fleet likely will be retired. CCS deployment also will be critical worldwide if we are serious about reducing global concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions.