Big Cajun I Repowering Project
POWERING LOUISIANA WITH NRG
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 NRG Energy, Inc., through its Louisiana Generating LLC subsidiary, supplies 100 percent of the power needs of Louisiana's 11 electric cooperatives.
The Big Cajun facility is located near New Roads, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. The initial start up of this power station was in the summer of 1972 when a 230 megawatt (MW) natural gas fired steam unit consisting of two gas boilers began commercial operations. In 2001, two peaking units began operations providing an additional 240 MW of electric power.
The proposed repowering project would dismantle the existing two gas fired boilers and replace them with one new Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) unit. The one new unit will be able to produce approximately the same amount of electricity as the existing two existing gas boilers, producing enough electricity to supply approximately 200,000 households.
The new state of the art CFB boiler will have the flexibility to burn petroleum coke, coal, and renewable biomass. Construction will last approximately 3 years, employ over 700 construction workers, cost over $300 million, and will have a positive impact in Pointe Coupee Parish and throughout Louisiana.
According to an economic impact study conducted by leading economist Dr. James A. Richardson, improving the capacity and reliability of the electricity supply will benefit the entire state of Louisiana. In addition, the repowering project will directly benefit Pointe Coupee Parish with the creation of 38 permanent high-paying jobs at the plant.
The ongoing operation of Big Cajun I Repower is expected to increase the business activity in the state by $124 million annually and increase household earnings by $24 million per year.
The construction of the repowered project will create substantial economic benefits, both direct and indirect, leading to additional business activity within the state of $102 million, approximately 706 new jobs, and household earnings of $30 million. In addition, the state and local governments will collect about $7.1 million in taxes as a result of the economic activity associated with the four-year construction project.
NRG is currently the largest single tax payer in the parish, contributing $5.2 million in taxes annually.
The new CFB boiler will be designed to fire solid fuels including petroleum coke, coal, or renewable biomass. In a CFB boiler, solid fuel and limestone are jointly fed to the combustion chamber. Air is injected from the bottom of the combustion chamber to provide combustion air as well as to "fluidize" the burning of the mix of fuel and limestone. Fluidization of the fuel and limestone mix allows for high heat transfer rates at relatively low combustion temperatures which increases the efficiency of the plant and also reduces emissions. The primary environmental advantages of this technology are reduced SO2 and NOx emissions.
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