Plum Point 1

The Plum Point 1 project consists of a 665 MW (net) coal-fired generating facility being built at a site that is a few miles south of the City of Osceola, Arkansas. MJMEUC’s ownership will be approximately 147 MW (net) of the capacity and output of the plant when built and placed into operation. The unit will be a pulverized coal-fired boiler and steam turbine, both of which are of conventional sub-critical design. The boiler is designed to utilize primarily low-sulfur sub-bituminous Powder River Basin coal, with the flexibility to blend in alternate coals. The air permit obtained from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality requires that the best available control technology be utilized to keep emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, mercury, and particulate matter within the limits defined in the permit. The unit will include low NOx burners, overfire air, a selective catalytic reduction system to manage NOx emissions, and fabric filters to manage particulates emissions. A powdered activated carbon system will remove mercury from the boiler flue gas. Emission controls for SO2 will include a flue gas desulfurization system that is designed to utilize a lime slurry solution to remove SO2 and particulates from the flue gas. The project has an agreement with BNSF Railway to provide coal transportation to the site for a period of up to 20 years. The site also has an Interconnection and Operating Agreement with Entergy for the interconnection of the unit with the Entergy 500 kV transmission system through a new Entergy substation that is about one mile from the site.

Under Unit Power Purchase Agreements with seven cities (Carthage, Kennett, Malden, and Poplar Bluff in Missouri and  Osceola, Piggott, and North Little Rock in Arkansas,) MJMEUC is obligated to deliver Plum Point power and energy to the Unit Power Purchaser cities at the project interconnection point with Entergy’s transmission system. It is anticipated that the transmission services required to deliver Plum Point power and energy to the Unit Power Purchaser cities will be provided by Entergy, and in some cases, an additional wheel by the Southwest Power Pool.  MJMEUC has a 50 MW power purchase agreement for 30 years. This will be used to serve the MoPEP load with transmission across Entergy to AECI (Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc.) and to cities connected to Entergy.

The Plum Point project is expected to be operated at baseload with minimal turndown at night and on weekends. The owners negotiated an agreement with North American Energy Services (NAES), a firm that specializes in the operations of large generating facilities to perform the day-to-day operations and maintenance activities for the facility. NAES will provide start-up and testing support, spare parts procurement, and other functions during the initial start-up and commissioning process. After commencement of commercial operations, NAES will provide general operations, routine maintenance, preparation of budgets, purchasing of materials, inventory management, and receipt and payment of all invoices for goods and services related to the project. The EPC contract requires that the unit achieve commercial operations by August 14, 2010.