Controversial plans to build a power plant on the University of Delaware’s high-tech campus as part of a proposed data center project faced two new obstacles this week when opponents said they would appeal the plant’s zoning approval to the Delaware Superior Court, and a consultant questioned the sponsor’s projections on the project’s environmental impact.
After months of heated debate between The Data Centers (TDC), the company that wants to build the plant, and Newark Residents Against the Power Plant, the opposition group said it would ask the court to reverse a recent decision by the Newark Board of Adjustment affirming a zoning verification for the project.
And Liberty Environmental, a consultant hired by the City of Newark to evaluate TDC’s application for an air-quality permit, called some of the company’s projections “questionable”, “misleading” and “of concern.”
In a 16-page report, Liberty criticized some of TDC’s conclusions on how the plant would affect local air quality, and said it should be required to collect a year’s worth of data for three kinds of air contaminants at the STAR campus before starting construction.
“We believe it would be prudent to require TDC to collect one year of preconstruction monitoring data and concurrent meteorological monitoring data … and to use this data in their air-quality impacts assessment before issuing a construction permit,” the report said.
But in an interview with WDDE, TDC said air-quality standards are mostly determined by regional, not site-specific factors, and that state and federal authorities do not generally require site-specific ambient air-quality data.
“TDC used data from long-term ambient air-monitoring performed by government agencies to establish background air quality for use in the air dispersion modeling performed in support of the air permit application,” said Rick Beringer of Duffield Associates, an environmental consultant to TDC.
Meanwhile, NRAPP’s Jen Wallace called the report “pretty damning” and highlighted the recommendation that TDC should collect air-quality data for a year before starting construction.
“TDC is going to have a difficult time explaining it away,” she said.
On the legal appeal, Wallace said the group is not seeking a hearing, so she hopes the court will move “swiftly” and rule within a couple of months.
“We’re asking the Superior Court to step in and review the Board of Adjustment’s process,” Wallace said.
NRAPP wants the court to reverse the board’s March 19 decision, a ruling that would overturn the City’s zoning verification. Failing that, the group is asking the court to send the case back to the board on grounds that it erred in some aspects of its decision.
In its appeal, the residents’ group said it will argue that the board was incorrect in ruling that the project would not impair the neighborhood, and in voting that Newark’s director of planning had the authority to impose zoning conditions, whereas only the city council has that right, the group said.
NRAPP also said it will argue that the board acted inconsistently, and made several procedural errors.
TDC, based in West Chester, Pa., wants to build the 279-megawatt plant as part of a 900,000-square foot data center on the university’s STAR campus where Chrysler cars were once made. The company has said it needs the facility to provide an assured source of power for the data center, and argues that the natural gas-powered plant will produce fewer emissions than power drawn from the grid.
The company says the $1.3 billion data center will generate some $20 million in tax revenue for the state over a three-year construction period; create 4,770 construction jobs, and produce $8 million a year in property-tax revenue.
TDC expressed confidence the court will endorse the zoning approval.
“TDC believes the City did a thorough and comprehensive job in initially reviewing the zoning verification request, and that the Board of Adjustment likewise did a thorough job of reviewing the City’s grant of the zoning verification,’ the company said in a statement. “The proposed data center and CHP co-generation facility is environmentally better for Newark and Delaware than if power were drawn from the existing grid, and TDC is confident that the Delaware Courts will uphold the City’s decision.”
Opponents argue the plant would produce far more power than the data center needs; that it would be too close to homes, schools, and parks, and would contribute to global warming. The campaign got a boost from university faculty on May 5 when 42 professors in its Senate voted unanimously to oppose construction of any fossil-fueled power plant on the STAR campus.
In the report, Liberty said it was unclear whether the plant would really be a combined heat and power (CHP) facility, as claimed by TDC, because the University of Delaware has said it has no plans to purchase surplus steam from the plant.
“It is therefore questionable whether TDC’s proposed facility will be able to qualify as a CHP facility or whether it will instead operate as a conventional ‘combined cycle’ gas-fired power plant,” Liberty Principal Gavin Biebuyck wrote. By piping low-pressure steam to nearby buildings, CHP plants can be more efficient than combined-cycle plants.
If TDC can’t substantiate its claim that the plant would operate as a CHP facility, it should revise its energy-efficiency and CO2 emissions estimates, and resubmit its air-permit application to the state’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, the report said.
UD spokeswoman Andrea Boyle confirmed the university would not buy steam from the proposed plant. She reissued a statement saying an internal working group is analyzing the TDC plan, and expects to publish its findings in mid-June.
Ken Grant, a spokesman for TDC, rejected Liberty’s critique of the CHP plan, saying the plant’s production of steam would give it CHP status even if the university does not use the steam.
“Whether the University of Delaware purchases steam or not, the fact that the steam would still be used for continuing operations makes it a CHP facility,” Grant said. “To claim otherwise is rather disingenuous.”
Adding to the project’s challenges was a May 27 letter from Newark Planning Director Maureen Feeney Roser to Duffield Associates, questioning some TDC projections.
Roser asked TDC to explain how the plant’s efficiency would be affected by UD’s decision not to accept steam from the plant. And she suggested the company has been inconsistent in its plans to use part of the plant known as “+2” to generate base-load power.
“It has always been the City’s understanding that the redundant power generated by the “+2” equipment was excess power that … would not actually be used by the facility unless a mechanical or other power event occurred,” Roser wrote. “However, you state that in conditions where no steam is available to produce electricity, part of the electrical base load will be obtained from the “+2” units.”
Meanwhile, Liberty said TDC should justify its plan to use three gas-fired internal combustion engines as part of its generating capacity, in addition to seven turbines. The engines have significantly higher emissions than the turbines, and are not typically used for base-load generation at power plants, Liberty said.
But TDC dismissed the argument on the grounds that it wants to build a power source for its data center, not a base-load power plant.
“The gas turbines will be the principle electricity and heat-production units,” Beringer said. “However, the smaller engines will offer advantages for internal load that the turbines cannot provide.”
For his part, Biebuyck expressed concern about a lack of guaranteed emission rates at the plant, arguing that data supplied by the turbine and engine makers are only estimated numbers.
TDC contended that the emissions guarantees cannot be provided until the design is finalized, and that won’t happen until the air-permitting process is complete.
“TDC is using the air-permitting process to establish design criteria for the facility,” Beringer said. “The plant as finally designed will need to meet the requirements of the air permit and vendors will need to guarantee that their equipment will meet those criteria.”
And Beringer denied TDC had used “outdated” federal standards on several key pollutants including coarse and fine particulates and volatile organic compounds, as alleged by Liberty.
For its part, Liberty questioned the company’s claims that the plant will generate fewer emissions than power drawn from the grid.
It said power distributed by PJM, the regional grid operator, is already producing “significantly” fewer emissions as natural gas plants replace those fired by coal. It also dismissed as “hypothetical” the company’s argument that the grid would be producing 131 fewer megawatts, and therefore fewer emissions, as a result of the plant’s output.
TDC insisted that its CHP will produce power for the data center with fewer emissions than if it drew power from the grid.
Meanwhile, Liberty said TDC should be required to obtain emissions offsets for its proposed output of fine particulates, known as PM2.5. Since New Castle County already fails to attain the federal air-quality standard for that particulate, the addition that would come with the power plant “is of concern,” the report said.
But TDC dismissed the argument, saying there are no state or federal offsets for PM2.5.
Gov. Jack Markell, who backs the project, declined to comment on the court challenge, according to his spokeswoman, Kelly Bachman. John Paradee, an attorney for the Board of Adjustment, said he was not surprised to hear of the appeal but declined further comment.
Liberty is due to present its report to Newark City Council at a public meeting on Monday, June 2.