The tiny town of Dover may host a power station capable of lighting a million homes if a proposal by a Swiss-based power company is approved by state officials.
Advanced Power Services L.L.C., through a subsidiary called AP Dutchess, wants to construct and operate a $1 billion, 1,000-megawatt generating plant on the site of Mid-Hudson Recycling in the town of Dover.
The site is adjacent to key infrastructure ideal for a power plant, a 345-kilovolt transmission line owned by Consolidated Edison, the utility that serves New York City and Westchester, and is also adjacent to a major natural gas pipeline owned by Iroquois Gas Transmission System. The plant would be fueled by natural gas.
It would take two to three years for studies and permits and another two to three years for construction, said Robert DeMeyere, project manager for the plant for Advanced Power Services. Start of operations is targeted for early 2014.
Since New York”™s Title 10 law for approving power plants lapsed in 2004 and was not re-approved, the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) statutes guide the power plant construction process. The process is more cumbersome than the Title 10 process, with Advance Power required to approach an array of separate groups with various says in the approval process, as opposed to having a single coordinating entity.
DeMeyere said that he expects the company to file its formal Environmental Assessment Form (EAF) in June, thus starting the SEQRA process that involves scoping sessions to gauge issues and concerns held by the public and officials. Those scoping sessions would form the basis of the eventual Environmental Impact Statement.
DeMeyere said the site is currently a brownfield, that is, a former industrial site with some degree of taint remaining on the property. He said that other than the emissions stack, the facility should be largely screened by the site topography and trees around it.
One advantage the facility would have going through environmental reviews is that the cooling of the plant would be by air condensers. This would avert the need to be near a large body of water, as air-cooling uses only about 10 percent of the water that water-cooled plants do. DeMeyere said that while more complicated, the air cooling system would only add about 5 percent or less to construction and operational costs.
It would be a combined-cycle plant that burns gas to turn turbines, and then uses the heat to make steam that turns other turbines. DeMeyere said the facility is more efficient and produces less pollution and less carbon dioxide emissions than oil- or coal-powered plants.
Advanced Power AG says it has led the development of more than 9,000 MW of power generation projects and raised $4.2 billion in project financing. Â
The town of Dover has a population of about 8,500 people. DeMeyere said the facility would be an economic boon to the town, creating some 500 construction jobs and ultimately between 25 and 30 full-time operational jobs when the facility is running. And he said the facility would be a major taxpayer to the school system and other jurisdictions.
State officials have estimated New York will have a power shortage in as little as five years, a shortfall projected to be particularly acute in the southeastern section of the state. While electricity can be “wheeled” over long distances, it is more efficient to have the providers and recipients near to each other to avoid loss over transmission lines.  Â
DeMeyere said that when the site was selected by company officials, the state official projections called for supply shortfalls over upcoming years of “several thousands megawatts.” Â
Although the 345k line is owned by Con Ed, the power would be sold to the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) through its bidding systems. Utilities such as Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. and New York State Electric & Gas Corp. buy most of their power from the NYISO under a complex system of bids for power from various sources.
New York”™s utilities are currently banned from making power; now they only transmit it over their lines. A law that would permit such power production via renewable sources is now under consideration by lawmakers.
