LG&E and KU report dry storage projects are on schedule

Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities Company (KU) recently announced that its dry storage projects for coal combustion residuals are on track for completion next year.

The projects will eliminate the use of ash ponds and other storage impoundments at their four coal-fired plants.

“We embraced the idea of dry storage for our coal byproducts in 2008,” Lonnie Bellar, senior vice president of Operations for LG&E and KU, said. “We saw this, along with our beneficial reuse programs, as a more environmentally friendly approach to handle the materials that result from burning coal to create energy.”

LG&E and KU’s E.W. Brown, Ghent, and Mill Creek power plants currently use dry storage. The companies are constructing a new dry storage facility at Trimble County power plant. Approximately one-fourth of the companies’ coal combustion residual ponds are closed or under contract for closure.

LG&E and KU also said that the approximately $1 billion program to cap and close the utilities’ remaining ash ponds and surface impoundments may cost less than the initial estimates

“We’re making significant progress – on pace and currently trending under budget – to meet new water quality standards established by Kentucky and more stringent standards under the EPA’s 2015 Coal Combustion Residuals Rule,” Bellar said. “It’s an incredible feat to initiate construction projects of this magnitude while safely operating our power plants around the clock to reliably meet our customers’ energy needs.”