NRG to suspend carbon capture operations at Petra Nova

US merchant generator NRG Energy plans to suspend operations at the Petra Nova carbon capture coal unit in Texas late this year and will instead run an attached cogeneration facility on a seasonal basis.

NRG plans to mothball the facility, which is at its WA Parish plant near Houston, Texas, beginning 20 December and run it from just 1 June-30 September, according to a notice posted this week by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

The plant's carbon capture operations have been in a reserve shutdown status since May because low oil prices brought by the Covid-19 pandemic made it uneconomical. That status allowed the $1bn facility to be idled but available to ERCOT for generation if necessary or if economic conditions improved.

NRG said last month it will continue to make the 78MW natural gas cogeneration facility that is also at the WA Parish plant available to ERCOT for generating purposes.

NRG and ERCOT could not be reached for comment.

Petra Nova, a joint venture between NRG and global oil and gas company JX Nippon, was brought on line in late 2016. It captures CO2 emissions from the WA Parish coal plant and transports by pipeline to an oil field, where it is injected into mature reservoirs to release more oil.

The project was the only one in the US that was capturing carbon dioxide from a coal-fired electric power plant.

By Nick Georgiou