POWER October 2020 - 38
PLANT DECOMMISSIONING
Power Plant Decommissioning
Tips to Save Time, Money, and
Hassle
All power plants have a finite useful life. Thus, there will come a time at every
facility when the unit must be retired and the decommissioning process undertaken.
Decisions must be made on who will do the work, how long to allot for
the job, and what to do with the site in the end. Fear not, however, there are
best practices your company can follow to ensure everything goes smoothly.
Aaron Larson
W
hen you talk to decommissioning
experts, the most important
message that seems to
come out of the conversations is that
companies need to have a clear vision
for the final outcome before they start
the decommissioning process. " Begin
with the end in mind, " Jeff Kopp, managing
director of Utility Consulting with
1898 & Co., part of Burns & McDonnell,
said, borrowing a quote from the late
self-help author Stephen R. Covey.
Randall Jostes, CEO of Environmental
Liability Transfer Inc. (ELT), a
comprehensive environmental liability
assumption company that acquires retired
facilities (Figure 1), handles the
decommissioning activities, and repurposes
the sites, agreed. " We start with
the reuse in mind. In other words, we
have internal land planners that look at
the market-look at the infrastructure of
the site-to determine its highest and
best future use, " he said.
By understanding and planning for the
future use in the beginning, mistakes,
such as placing an impoundment in an
area that might impede development, can
be avoided. In some cases, it can also allow
structures to be saved and utilized,
rather than just scraping a site clean.
" We start with our development concept
upfront, and then everything we do
is designed to get the site ready for that
purpose, " Jostes told POWER.
Risk Management
" It's never too early to start planning, "
said Kopp, suggesting that much of the
initial preparation should be predicated
on risk. " You've got to look at the individual
plant and what level of risk it has, "
he said. " Some of these older coal plants
38
1. In December 2018, Environmental Liability Transfer Inc. (ELT) assumed the environmental liabilities
at the retired 1,600-MW coal-fired Brayton Point Power Station in Somerset, Massachusetts.
Today, the site is being transformed into a world-class logistical port and support center,
which will be capable of component manufacturing, staging, operations, and maintenance for
offshore wind and other related sectors. The top image was taken Oct. 9, 2019, and the bottom
image was taken July 27, 2020. Courtesy: ELT
that have been operating for a long time
have environmental risks, such as asbestos
and PCBs [polychlorinated biphenyls],
where I think you've got to carry a higher
level of contingency because there's just
a lot more unknowns and a lot greater
likelihood that you're going to run into
some cost overruns. "
" Commercially speaking, one of the
key considerations is understanding
risk in the context of various contract
structures and designing the decommissioning
project to balance risk and
expenditure, " said Erin Carroll, senior
vice president and managing director of
PowerAdvocate's Client Services team,
a group that helps companies better
manage costs through supply chain
spending. " For example, lump sum
contracts are popular. How are owners
evaluating lump sum prices compared
to the obligations of the owner? Conversely,
in a target price contract, how
is risk shared and aligned with the contractor's
incentives to drive savings? "
This leads to perhaps the biggest dewww.powermag.com
cision
that owners must make, whether
to self-perform or outsource the project
(see sidebar). Jostes suggested a
company such as ELT can speed up the
decommissioning process, reduce the
overall cost, eliminate much of the risk,
and relieve the stress that comes with
self-performing the work.
" It's a matter of putting a compelling
economic equation in front of these utilities,
showing them that our process is
economically superior. And it's quicker.
And it's guaranteed, " Jostes said. He
noted that many of the communities affected
by a plant closing have lost jobs
and are looking for redevelopment. " We
have all of that in-house, " he said. " Instead
of going out to market, the utility
really is getting everything that is
required to decommission, reposition,
and redevelop the site in one company. "
For example, when an owner selfperforms
a decommissioning project, it
often must engage with and solicit bids
from a number of specialists, such as
demolition companies, asbestos abatePOWER
| October 2020
http://www.powermag.com
POWER October 2020
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER October 2020
Contents
POWER October 2020 - Intro
POWER October 2020 - 2
POWER October 2020 - 3
POWER October 2020 - Cover1
POWER October 2020 - Cover2
POWER October 2020 - Contents
POWER October 2020 - 2
POWER October 2020 - 3
POWER October 2020 - 4
POWER October 2020 - 5
POWER October 2020 - 6
POWER October 2020 - 7
POWER October 2020 - 8
POWER October 2020 - 9
POWER October 2020 - 10
POWER October 2020 - 11
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POWER October 2020 - Cover3
POWER October 2020 - Cover4
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