Xcel Energy plans to reduce emissions

MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy has filed a plan to reduce mercury emissions at its coal-fired power plant in Becker, Minn.

The plan was filed with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and will help reduce mercury emitted from the Sherburne County Generating Plant's Unit 3, as well as the Allen S. King plant in Oak Park Heights, the St. Cloud Times reported.

Sherco released 958 pounds of mercury in 2005, making it the 21st biggest mercury producer in the United States that year, according to the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory.

Xcel has proposed installation of a system that injects a fine powder into the duct work of the plant's air-quality control equipment. Mercury would collect on the surface of the powder, which then would be captured.

The company estimates the systems will remove up to 90 percent of the mercury in the coal burned at King and Sherco's Unit 3, and it will cost about $4.5 million to install and between $3.8 and $5.5 million annually to operate and maintain.

The average rate impact for a residential customer is expected to be about 16 cents a month.