CEPA Environmental Registry - Thermal Power Generation Emissions - National Guidelines for New Stationary Sources Discussion Document

Discussion Document - December 2001

Introduction

In November 2001 the Minister of the Environment announced that Environment Canada would initiate multi-stakeholder consultations on revisions to the Thermal Power Generation Emissions - National Guidelines for New Stationary Sources (the Guidelines). A draft of the revised Guidelines has been prepared and is being distributed to stakeholders for comment. The purpose of this discussion document is to inform the consultation process by presenting the background information and rationale for the proposed revisions to the Guidelines.

The revised Guidelines will be an important part of the federal contribution to meeting the Canada-Wide Standards for PM and Ozone agreed to by federal, provincial and territorial environment ministers in June, 2000. Under this agreement, Ministers committed to "ensuring that new facilities and activities incorporate best available economically feasible technologies to reduce PM and ozone levels" as part of their agreement of "keeping clean areas clean".

The Guidelines were originally published in 1981 under the Clean Air Act. They are intended to provide national emission standards for application by provinces to new coal, oil and gas-fired steam-electric power plants. The Guidelines include emission limits for sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), total particulate matter (PM), stack opacity and provisions for continuous emissions monitoring (CEM). The NOx emissions limits in the Guidelines were revised in 1993, based on a recommendation in the 1990 Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) NOx/VOC Management Plan. In 1998, the Federal Action Plan to Reduce Toxic Emissions from Electric Power Plants was announced based on extensive consultations under the CEPA Strategic Options Process. This Action Plan recommended that more stringent PM limits be incorporated into the Guidelines.

Over the past two decades, the Guidelines have provided an important reference point for industry proposals and provincial decisions with respect to new power plants. However, the Guidelines are out of date with respect to improvements in technologies to reduce SOx, NOx and PM from fossil-fuel fired power plants over the past decade or more. In the U.S., new plants are built with major improvements in environmental performance based on U.S. national emission standards and state-level evaluation of best available control technologies.

This discussion document presents concise information illustrative of the performance of best available technologies (BAT) that are economically feasible. The information focuses on emission performance levels that are thoroughly demonstrated to be economically feasible through their successful application in the U.S. and other jurisdictions. (For additional information, including detailed descriptions of the technologies themselves, the reader is referred to the literature sources referenced in the Bibliography.) Based on this information, an illustrative range for proposed emission limits is developed. The discussion paper also indicates where more stringent emission limits may be appropriate. The key objective for the consultations on the Guideline revisions will be selecting discrete emission limits for the revised Guidelines considering information such as that provided in this discussion document.