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Fertilizer pellets are one of many products produced from the recycling of CCRs left over after the coal-fired power generation process. Photo furnished
Concrete, wallboard and roofing shingles may not sound like remarkable items to most, but for customers of Kentucky’s two largest utilities, materials used to make them are generating unprecedented savings. In 2021 alone, Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company delivered a record $15.6 million dollars in revenue back to customers of Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company.
The income is the result of recycling by-products left over after the power-production process at the utilities’ four coal-fired generating stations. As the facilities churn out the tens of thousands of megawatt-hours of electricity customers require each day, three different by-products are left over after the coal is burned. These materials – fly ash, bottom ash and gypsum – are often referred to as coal combustion residuals, or CCRs. CCR production volumes and their chemical and physical properties vary depending on the characteristics of the coal they came from, such as where it was mined and how deep it was under the ground. As approved for many uses by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, CCRs can be safely recycled and beneficially used to make products including concrete, cement, fertilizer, porcelain tile, wallboard and roofing shingles.
LG&E and KU’s beneficial use program markets the utilities’ CCR materials to third-party companies for their production processes. The resulting contracts extend the life of LG&E and KU’s existing landfills located at the plants, where the materials would otherwise be stored. The contracts also eliminate the need for future mining for the products that the CCRs replace while reducing landfills ahead of the eventual retirement of the remaining coal-fired facilities and are increasingly generating more revenue, which is routed 100% back to customers as a credit, primarily calculated into the environmental surcharge on bills each month.
Gypsum, seen above, is created as LG&E and KU remove more than 97% of sulfur dioxide from power plant flue gas and is safely recycled through partnerships with Kentucky and other surrounding states companies that use it to make wall board and fertilizer. Photo furnished
“While we’re preparing to retire the bulk of our coal-fired generation fleet over the course of the next few decades, we’re still working to maximize the revenue earned for our customers through our recycling program,” said LG&E and KU Chief Operating Officer Lonnie Bellar. “Since 2016, our recycling program has generated more than $42 million in savings for LG&E and KU customers and with these materials increasingly earning a premium, we anticipate being able to continue passing along these savings for years to come.”
By-products that are not beneficially used are safely managed on-site by LG&E and KU at their power plants. As a result of the EPA's more stringent standards for handling the materials, LG&E and KU — along with other utilities across the country — launched aggressive projects to systematically close all of the utilities’ remaining ash ponds and wet CCR storage impoundments, where the materials were previously stored. Already about 85% of the utilities’ wet CCR storage impoundments are closed, representing more than 700 acres of former storage space now closed, capped, reclaimed and repurposed as green space or for other operational needs since the program began in 2008. The utilities operate new CCR treatment and dry-processing facilities at their four coal-fired generating stations and operate state-of-the-art process water treatment facilities at each station to treat waters that come in contact with CCR materials.
Empowering a sustainable energy future
As part of environmental efforts across the combined LG&E and KU generation fleet and throughout its business, together with its parent company, PPL, LG&E and KU have committed to achieve net-zero carbon (CO2) emissions by 2050, with interim reduction targets of 70% from 2010 levels by 2035 and 80% by 2040.
LG&E has already helped the city of Louisville reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 10%, and both utilities are increasingly adding more solar to further expand their system’s existing renewable generation, which includes two, nearly 100-year-old hydroelectric generating facilities. LG&E and KU continue to explore opportunities to add more cost-effective renewable energy sources for customers.
Visit lge-ku.com/environment to learn more about LG&E and KU’s environmental efforts.