REO Town Cogeneration Plant

Project Overview

The Lansing Board of Water and Light (BWL) undertook an award-winning project located in Downtown Lansing that included development of a new power plant and administrative offices. The Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant comprised of two natural gas-fired combustion turbines equipped with heat recovery steam generators, condensing steam turbines with associated cooling tower. The plant is located in the historical REO Town of Lansing, MI and was considered to be adjacent to the existing Eckert and Moores Park Station. The facility consists of a 6-story, 115,000 ft2 office/plant building with cooling tower located on the roof.

Project Scope

NTH first developed an air use permit application for the installation of the CHP Plant and the decommissioning of the Moores Park boilers. The existing Eckert and Moores Park Station is a major source for criteria pollutants. Therefore, the project was subject to review under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) New Source Review (NSR) regulations. NTH demonstrated through a netting analysis that the project would not result in a “net increase” of pollutants, and was not subject to complicated PSD requirements. To complete the permit application, NTH conducted a dispersion modeling analysis for expected pollutants for comparison to the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), PSD Class II increments, and toxic air containment screening levels per Michigan Air Toxics Rule.

BWL received an air permit for the construction and operation of the REO Town cogeneration plant in December 2010. NTH provided BWL support in completing two minor modifications to the approved permit, issued in August 2011 and March 2013, as well as providing appropriate forms in support of the facility Acid Rain and CSAPR Permits. The facility commenced operation July of 2013.

After startup, NTH performed an extensive performance testing program for the new equipment and performed evaluations of results against air permit limits.

NTH was retained by BWL to prepare the air permit and negotiate final conditions; we were later retained by BWL’s Prime Contractor to perform materials testing and special inspections.