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Date |
Title |
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| Dec. 27, 2019 | The first 280-megawatt power block at the Asheville Combined Cycle Station started serving customers. The power block includes a 180-megawatt combustion turbine generator and a 100-megawatt steam turbine generator. |
| July 17, 2019 | As crews work to bring the new Asheville combined-cycle natural gas plant online in late 2019, some construction activities could be more noticeable to locals. Crews will start up the plant’s engines for the first time and clean out construction debris that gets stuck in plant equipment. These activities are safe, routine and keep the equipment in good working condition. |
Asheville Plant
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Capacity: 344 megawatts
Location: Arden, North Carolina
Commercial Date: 1964
Status: Retired
Have a Question? Email your questions to:
CoalAshQuestions@duke-energy.com
Location: Arden, North Carolina
Commercial Date: 1964
Status: Retired
The two-unit, 344-megawatt Asheville coal plant retired on Jan. 29, 2020. The plant started serving customers in June 1964.
The Asheville Combined Cycle Station, a cleaner-burning, highly efficient natural gas station, replaced the coal plant. In 2017, Duke Energy started building the new 560-megawatt combined-cycle natural gas plant to accommodate burgeoning growth in the area and meet customer demand. Building highly efficient natural gas plants is also part of the company's balanced approach to providing customers reliable and increasingly clean energy. Though the new natural gas plant is geographically located in Arden, N.C., its energy is fed to the grid, which benefits customers in both North Carolina and South Carolina.
The Asheville Combined Cycle Station is Duke Energy's most efficient in the Carolinas – and 75% more efficient than the now-retired coal plant it replaced.
Duke Energy customers benefit dollar for dollar from this efficiency through lower power plant fuel costs.
Because natural gas burns cleaner than coal, carbon dioxide emissions at the site have dropped by about 60% per megawatt-hour in comparison to the now-retired coal plant. Sulfur dioxide is expected to decrease by 99% and nitrogen oxides by 40%. Mercury has also been eliminated.
The Asheville site also has two simple-cycle combustion turbines capable of producing 320 megawatts of energy.
Have a Question? Email your questions to:
CoalAshQuestions@duke-energy.com
Asheville Plant
Asheville Plant
Asheville Plant
Asheville Plant aerial view
Asheville Plant aerial view
Plant Happenings
Information included in recent neighbor updates, along with work and progress at the site.
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Date |
Title |
|---|---|
| June 11, 2020 | Beginning on June 15, we will begin nighttime work at our on-site landfill, which was approved for construction earlier this year. The shift to a 24-hour schedule, six days a week, is necessary to meet our basin excavation deadline of August 2022 and comply with the Mountain Energy Act. The work is interior to our site and is not expected to impact neighbors, though some may see lights or hear machinery in the distance. The nighttime work is expected to conclude this fall. |
| April 5, 2020 | The new 560-megawatt Asheville Combined Cycle Station became fully operational with the remaining 100-megawatt steam turbine generator coming online. |
| Jan. 29, 2020 | Duke Energy retired the two-unit 344-megawatt Asheville coal plant, marking the end of an era. The coal plant reliably served customers from 1964 to 2020. |
| Jan. 15, 2020 | The Asheville Combined Cycle Station started producing 460 megawatts of energy with a second 180-megawatt combustion turbine generator coming online. |
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Date
Title
Dec. 6, 2017 Update to neighbors on construction activities for many projects ongoing at the plant for the next several years
Oct. 6, 2017 Learn more about our emergency action plans for coal ash facilities. Ash basins continue to operate safely and are highly regulated. Removing water and permanently closing basins, work that is already planned or underway, adds an additional margin of safety. Inundation maps are planning tools that illustrate a worst-case scenario and depict the areas that could be impacted in the unlikely event of a complete dam failure.
May - July 2017
Crews at the Asheville combined-cycle project are removing rock by drilling 10- to 20- feet into the ground to prepare the site for the new natural gas plant. Though crews will be performing drilling activities every 2-3 days, we don't expect project neighbors to hear additional noise from the drilling process.
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Date
Title
Sept. 2016
Completed excavation of the 1982 basin. Ash from the remaining 1964 basin is being transported to a fully lined landfill in Homer, Ga. The project will complete in 2022.
02/22/2016
Began transporting coal ash from our Asheville Plant to the fully lined Cliffside landfill in Mooresboro, N.C. We plan to initially focus on transporting during daylight hours with a fleet of trucks making up to 2-3 turns per weekday. This plan will continue to be evaluated for safety and efficiencies.
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Date
Title
11/23/2015
10/14/2015
Remaining coal ash from the 1982 ash basin will be excavated and transported for final storage at the R&B fully lined landfill in Homer, Ga. (owned and operated by Waste Management). Trucks will travel along previously used haul route.
09/01/2015
Ongoing excavation work in the cove area of the 1982 ash basin.
Aug. - Sept. 2015
Tree removal in the cove area of the 1982 ash basin. Work will pause Sept. 4 – 7 for the Labor Day holiday. 08/10/2015
Excavation work in the cove area of the 1982 ash basin.
07/16/2015
May - July, 2015
Coal ash hauling to the Asheville Regional Airport will be suspended on Glenn Bridge Road and portions of New Rockwood Road. Hauling activities will continue from the plant’s rear gate onto Bradley Branch Road to Airport Road.
Feb. - May, 2015
Installing groundwater monitoring wells to help inform future ash basin closure recommendations.
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