Cliffside Steam Station
- Capacity: 562 megawatts
- Location: Cleveland and Rutherford counties, North Carolina
- Commercial Date: 1940
Cliffside Steam Station is a two-unit coal-fired generating facility located on the Cleveland/Rutherford County line in North Carolina. Although it is part of the same station, unit 5 is located in Rutherford County, North Carolina, one-half mile from the original four units (198 megawatts) that were retired in fall 2011.
Duke Energy has made significant improvements to reduce emissions from the company’s coal-fired plants. Unit 5, currently the single unit operating until the new unit 6 comes on line, is equipped with a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) device that reduces nitrogen oxide emissions by approximately 80 percent. A flue gas desulfurization system (or scrubber) was added in 2010, which reduces sulfur dioxide emissions by approximately 95 percent.
Cliffside Modernization Project
In 2008, Duke Energy submitted an application to the North Carolina Public Utilities Commission to modernize and expand Cliffside Steam Station. Construction of the new 825-megawatt (MW) advanced cleaner-coal unit is nearly complete. When it begins operating in 2012, Cliffside Unit 6 will rank among the cleanest and most efficient pulverized coal-fired units in the nation. Building unit 6 and modernizing unit 5 will enable the Cliffside facility to generate more than twice its current electricity output with significantly less emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury.
With the modernization project, Duke Energy is retiring 1,000 MW of older, less efficient coal-fired generation across North Carolina. This project ensures that Duke Energy will continue to meet our customers’ need for affordable, clean and reliable electricity in the future. Learn more about the Cliffside modernization project.
