Calgary, Alberta-based TransAlta will shut down its 1,340-MW coal plant in Centralia, Wash., and build a $1-billion combined-cycle natural-gas replacement plant as the result of an agreement with the state that is pending in the Legislature.
The agreement, in the works for almost two years, will result in one of the two Centralia units being shut down by Dec. 31, 2020, and the second unit to follow by Dec. 31, 2025. TransAlta will install additional selective non-catalytic-reduction air-pollution technology by 2013 to ease nitrogen oxide emissions from Washington’s largest single industrial source of that pollution. Though it is one of the state’s largest polluters, the plant only supplies 10% of its electricity.