Corporation Commission to ponder OG&E coal-scrubber plan 3rd time

Whether Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co.’s plan to install costly scrubbers on its Sooner coal plant is a reasonable environmental compliance option is now up to the three-member Corporation Commission.

A three-day hearing ended Wednesday with closing arguments by the utility and eight other parties in the case, OG&E’s third try for scrubber approval. Regulators voted down two earlier attempts in December.

“This is about preserving fuel diversity,” said Kimber Shoop, an attorney for OG&E. He said OG&E’s plan to install a $500 million scrubber upgrade at the Sooner plant near Red Rock would ensure the utility’s customers get the benefits of lowprice coal for another 30 years.

The scrubbers are half of OG&E’s “scrub/convert” plan to meet lower sulfur dioxide emissions under regional haze rules. The utility plans to convert two of three coal units at its Muskogee plant to natural gas. OG&E said if it can’t get approval for the Sooner coal scrubber project, it would likely convert the two coal units to natural gas. If regulators grant scrubber approval, the utility would come back after the project is built to add the costs to customer bills.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, whose office represents consumers in utility cases, supported OG&E’s scrubber plan, as did the OG&E Shareholders Association, Oklahoma Industrial Energy Consumers and the Corporation Commission’s public utility division. Attorneys for those groups said OG&E offered a reasonable plan that preserved fuel diversity and offered operational flexibility if natural gas continues its historical volatility.

The case’s other parties — Sierra Club, AARP, Oklahoma Energy Results LLC and Oklahoma Cogeneration LLC — said OG&E’s plan puts too much risk on ratepayers, adding OG&E failed to update economic modeling with new, lower long-term natural gas forecasts. Opponents of the plan said investing money on costly coal scrubbers brings more risks from future environmental regulations.