Clean Natural Gas Comes to Memphis
Allen Fossil Fuel Plant transforms into a natural gas plant.
- Memphis Light, Gas and Water will build a pipeline that will supply natural gas to drive the Allen plant’s existing turbines.
- The new natural gas plant will be built across the road from the existing fossil facility.
- The new arrangement will reduce carbon emissions by 60 percent.
- Nitrogen oxides will be reduced by 90 percent, and sulfur dioxide by nearly 100 percent.
The TVA board of directors has approved a measure to replace its 55-year-old Allen Fossil Plant with a cleaner natural gas plant in order to supply residents of Memphis with affordable reliable power, while at the same time reducing particulate matter in the air.
The resulting gas plant configuration will have greater energy capacity than the coal plant it replaces. This will preserve the opportunity to use the gas plant in conjunction with other kinds of energy sources such as solar or wind to meet future demand, assuming they meet TVA’s lowest feasible cost and reliability standards.
The new gas plant will be built across Plant Road from the existing coal plant, and Memphis Light, Gas and Water will build a pipeline that will supply natural gas to the Allen’s two existing combustion turbines. The exhaust from the combustion turbines will generate steam to drive an existing turbine, making it one of TVA’s most powerful generation plants.
Compared with the current Allen Fossil Plant the new plant will reduce carbon emissions by 60 percent, nitrogen oxides by 90 percent, and sulfur dioxide by nearly 100 percent.