Nushagak Dillingham Power Plant

Steigers Corporation prepared a Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) Construction Permit application for the Dillingham Power Plant, an existing 5.4-MW diesel power plant for which an additional 1.0 MW of power generation capacity was planned. Steigers resolved the issue of installing retroactive Best Available Control Technology (BACT) on aging diesel-fired power generation equipment and by negotiating an agreement with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) that allows continued operation of the power generation equipment without implementing BACT until the existing units are replaced. Steigers Corporation’s client thereby avoided the need to install expensive nitrogen oxide (NO_X) emission controls on aging equipment and was allowed to direct limited resources to better use on more efficient and lower-polluting new units.

Moreover, Steigers Corporation used consumer rate increase data to convince ADEC and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that NO_x emission control with Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) was too costly to be considered BACT.

Despite the limited availability of key meteorological data inputs for air dispersion modeling, a meteorological data set was developed that met EPA’s and ADEC’s approval, thereby avoiding time-consuming monitoring that would have delayed the project approximately 18 months. After ADEC drafted the PSD Construction Permit, Steigers Corporation reviewed the document and convinced ADEC to agree to a reasonable construction schedule and to delete unjustified conditions and requirements.