Tampa Electric Co. on May 24 announced an $853 million investment to modernize its coal-fired Big Bend power plant as part of its decarbonization strategy.
Under the plan, the Emera Inc. utility will convert unit 1 at the 1,632-MW plant to natural gas, while unit 2 will be retired earlier than planned. Emera executives previewed the plan during the company's first-quarter earnings call May 11, describing how one of the units will be shuttered, while the turbine from another would use steam from gas-fired generators.
Construction at Big Bend is anticipated to start as early as 2019, to progressively enter service in 2021 and to be fully complete in 2023, according to a news release.
In November 2017, Florida regulators approved a settlement agreement allowing Tampa Electric to invest about $850 million to install 600 MW of solar energy in west-central Florida in the next four years.
With the conversion at Big Bend, Tampa Electric anticipates its fuel mix will be about 75% natural gas, 12% coal, about 7% solar and about 6% from other sources by 2023. In 2017, 69% of its energy was generated from gas, 24% from coal and 6.5% from other sources, including solar, the company said.
An accident at Big Bend's unit 2 resulted in the deaths of five workers after a coal-burning byproduct was released during maintenance operations June 29, 2017.
