Project Overview

Duke Energy Carolinas received approval on February 28, 2007 from the North Carolina Utilities Commission for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) to modernize Cliffside Steam Station, located in Rutherford and Cleveland counties, N.C.   The Cliffside modernization project includes:
  • One highly efficient 800-megawatt advanced clean coal unit, projected to come on line in 2012.
  • The retirement of Cliffside units 1-4 with a capacity of 198 megawatts and the elimination of the site’s heated water discharge in the Broad River.
  • Extensive emissions controls to ensure the plant will be among the cleanest coal plants in the nation.
  • Cost savings by leveraging existing Cliffside facilities, such as the water intake and transmission equipment, and sharing a new stack with Unit 5.
  • Substantial economic benefits for Cleveland and Rutherford counties with a potential investment of approximately $1.8 billion for the new unit and $300 million for the Unit 5 scrubber.
  • Investment of 1% of annual retail electricity revenues in energy efficiency and demand side programs with appropriate regulatory treatment; and,
  • Retirement of older coal-fired units on a megawatt-for-megawatt basis, considering the impact on reliability, for actual load reductions realized from these new programs up to the megawatt level added by the new unit.

The modernization is part of the company’s long-term generation strategy and will benefit from approximately $65 million in federal clean coal tax incentives due to the advanced supercritical pulverized coal technology planned for the unit.

Modernizing Cliffside ensures Duke Energy’s customers in the Carolinas will continue to have an economical, reliable and diverse power plant fleet that will help our economy grow. Adding an advanced clean coal unit at Cliffside with advanced emissions controls, while retiring older units at the same time, significantly improves the efficiency of our power plant fleet.

The Cliffside modernization is fundamental to our new generation strategy, which also includes an option to build a 2,234-megawatt nuclear plant in Cherokee County, S.C., new natural gas-fired plants and pursuing additional energy efficiency programs and renewable technologies.

The new generation strategy strengthens our current Clean Smokestacks compliance plan in North Carolina, with significant emission reduction efforts planned largely as a result of more stringent federal requirements. The net result will be to reduce environmental impacts, including lowering the carbon dioxide emission intensity of our operations.