AES Westover Generation Plant

Westover Generation Plant is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by AES near Johnson City, New York. In March 2011 the AES Westover retired its Unit 8 power station in March 2011. Additionally, AES announced it wanted to sell four of its New York coal plants, including Westover.

In 1999, AES purchased six power plants in New York (including the Westover station) from NGE Generation, Inc. for $953 million. The other stations included in the deal were AES Somerset, AES Cayuga, AES Greenidge, AES Hickling, and AES Jennison.

The now retired station sits between Interstate 86 and the Susquehanna River, near the intersections of Interstates 86 and 81. Downtown Binghamton is 3.2 miles from the Westover station.

Plant Data

 * Owner: AES Westover LLC
 * Parent Company: AES
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 119 MW
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 44 MW (1943), 75 MW (1951)
 * Location: 720 Riverside Dr., Johnson City, NY 13790
 * GPS Coordinates: 42.111389, -75.974111
 * Coal Consumption:
 * Coal Source:
 * Number of Employees:

Emissions Data

 * 2006 CO2 Emissions: 615,505 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions:
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
 * 2006 NOx Emissions:
 * 2005 Mercury Emissions:

The following table gives more info on this plant's SO2 emissions levels, as well as on whatever SO2 emissions "scrubbers" (Flue Gas Desulfurization units, or FGDs) have been installed at the plant. Each of the plant's units is listed separately, and at the bottom overall data for the plant is listed.

Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from AES Westover Generation Plant
In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants. Fine particle pollution consists of a complex mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Among these particles, the most dangerous are those less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and illnesses are major examples of coal's external costs, i.e. uncompensated harms inflicted upon the public at large. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. To monetize the health impact of fine particle pollution from each coal plant, Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.

Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from the AES Westover Generation Plant
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011

Emissions Reduction Technology
In December 2006, AES announced the company would install emission-reducing technology on Unit 8 of the Westover station. Construction on the $50-million project began in early 2007 and was completed in 2008. AES installed a Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) system for a ninety percent reduction in nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. A dry scrubber and fabric filter bag-house was built to reduce sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emissions by ninety-five percent. AES expected mecury emissions would be reduced by ninety percent because of these additions.

Babcock Power Environmental of Danvers, MA engineered and supplied the equipment used in the project. Nicholson & Hall of Buffalo, NY led the construction.

Battery Storage Project
On April 15, 2010, $22.3 million battery storage project at the AES Westover station was approved by the New York Public Service Commission. Unit 7 of the Westover station will be converted for the project, which will store 20 megawatts of energy until it is needed by the grid. The project will include ten 53-foot containers, each with inverters and a direct current (DC) battery system storing 2 megawatts. The battery storage project will be built in two phases with the first beginning in the second quarter of 2010.

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * New York and coal
 * AES
 * United States and coal
 * Global warming