How we use water Water is a shared natural resource that is critical to the production of electricity. One of our most important operational uses of water occurs in our steam-electric plants, in which highly purified water is heated in boilers under high pressure to produce steam. The steam drives turbines, which generate electricity. Steam must then be cooled and condensed to water before being reheated to steam again. This process requires circulation of large volumes of water through condensers to remove waste heat. The heated water is typically sent to towers or lakes for cooling or returned to the local water body. Some of the cooling water is lost through evaporation, but most is returned to the original source.
Additional operational uses of water include:
Transporting coal fly ash and bottom ash at some of our coal-fired power plants;
Controlling SO2 emissions via wet scrubbers;
Controlling the formation of NOx in combustion turbines; and
Providing potable water for human consumption and for sanitary purposes.
Innovations in water management We are committed to being good stewards of natural resources and are focused on innovative, responsible, community-based solutions to assure the water resources critical to our operations. For example:
We are the first company in Florida to build and operate more than 2,000 MW of generation using alternative water supplies. The Hines Energy Complex uses treated wastewater from Bartow, Fla., as makeup supply to the plant’s cooling pond. This is a form of recycling that poses no negative environmental impact and helps to conserve groundwater that supplies area drinking water. The plant also uses a water-cropping system across the 8,000-acre site to capture, store, manage and use stormwater as makeup supply to the cooling pond.
Since December 2002, we have partnered with Volusia County, Fla., to transfer wastewater from our DeBary Plant to the county’s reclaimed water system. That water supplements the treated municipal wastewater provided to golf courses, parks, schools and others for irrigation purposes and decreases the need to use valuable drinking water.
Constructed wetlands and bioreactors for scrubber effluent treatment The FGD systems, or scrubbers, on coal-fired boilers at several plants use water as part of the process to remove contaminants from the air. This resulting effluent must be treated before the water can be reintroduced into the environment. Through collaboration and extensive research, we identified two innovative technologies to provide treatment in an environmentally responsible manner. These are constructed wetlands and a bioreactor system.
Constructed Wetlands – Constructed wetlands are being used to treat FGD wastewater at our Asheville Plant in Buncombe County, N.C. These wastewater-treatment systems, which use a combination of plants, microbes and soils to treat water, are considered sustainable and environmentally friendly and provide wildlife habitats for migratory species. Designed to treat more than one-half million gallons per day, the wetlands remove greater than 90 percent of mercury and 85 percent of selenium from the water.
Bioreactor – We led the transfer of an innovative bioreactor technology to the FGD wastewater treatment industry. The ZENON ABMet® bioreactor system is a biological treatment process using naturally occurring, nontoxic, nonpathogenic microbes. The microbes clean the FGD wastewater streams, and no chemicals are required other than the biodegradable nutrient solution used as the microbes’ food source. The bioreactor system is designed to treat 1,400 gallons per minute, produce minimal sludge, and remove more than 95 percent of selenium and more than 90 percent of mercury. This system is installed at our Roxboro Plant in Person County, N.C., and is under construction at our Mayo Plant, also in Person County.
Conservation in our corporate offices
The Carolinas and much of the Southeast dealt with a serious drought in 2008, and Progress Energy took action to drastically improve water conservation at its seven Raleigh facilities. These actions resulted in saving more than 2 million gallons of water in 2008 – double the company’s original goal.
A Water Resource Strategy Team was formed at Progress Energy in early 2008 to determine the most effective method of water conservation for the company. The team set an initial goal of reducing usage by 1 million gallons of water in 2008, primarily from two downtown Raleigh high-rise corporate headquarter buildings.
In February, Progress Energy installed low-flow aerators in 250 sinks and low-flow flush valves in 243 toilets and urinals at its corporate headquarters. The company’s Two Progress Plaza, which was completed in 2004, already incorporates many water- and energy-efficiency measures but adding low-flow aerators saved approximately 80,000 more gallons of water.
Indoors is not the only place where conservation is evident at Progress Energy. The company has also stopped irrigating the landscaping using city water at its corporate headquarters. In one of its more innovative initiatives, the company now captures water from weekly, mandatory tests of the company’s fire pumps and uses it to water plants or power wash buildings as needed.
The company’s facilities group also made changes to its main building’s HVAC system. The group has updated the HVAC’s chemical feed system to reduce the amount of water lost in the building’s cooling tower. The company is also collecting the condensate from the cooling tower and recycling it to the cooling tower.
The grand total of water conserved by Progress Energy’s Raleigh efforts is 2,306,084 gallons in 2008. In addition, the success of these measures in Raleigh has motivated the company to move forward with similar water-saving initiatives at its other facilities throughout the Carolinas.
In addition, our new Florida headquarters building, called Progress Energy Place, opened in 2006 with a number of water- and energy-conservation technologies. The building uses low-flow toilets, urinals and sinks as well as automated on/off controls for the sinks and urinals. The building also has 100 percent solar hot water heating, which provides up to 1,200 gallons of hot water each day.
University of Florida Water Institute The UF Water Institute was created through a partnership with Progress Energy to develop sound, science-based solutions to global water problems. The Institute hosted its inaugural UF Water Institute Symposium in February 2008, and brought more than 450 experts from a variety of institutional affiliations, disciplines and personal interests together to discuss challenges to sustainable water resources in Florida and beyond. As of March 2009, the Institute has worked with 180 UF faculty members from nine colleges.
