In the United States, environmental regulations have shaped the energy landscape for over 30 years. Today, several pollutant emissions including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury, greenhouse gases, chlorine and particulate matter are regulated either at the state or federal level. Utilities have had to invest large amounts of capital in compliance strategies, whether it is retrofitting units with pollutant control equipment, converting to different energy sources or retiring generating units.
The major regulations impacting utilities in the United States today are:
- Mercury Air Toxic Standards (MATS)
- Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) & Cross State Air Pollution Standard (CSAPR)
- Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA)
- Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)
- Green House Gas regulation (New Source Performance Standards & Clean Power Plan)
- Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS)
We have a very deep understanding on how the specific mechanics of these regulations works and how they translate into modeling and scenario analysis. We have been involved in various consulting engagements with both private and public clients to model the forecasted impact of environmental regulations on all facets of the domestic energy industry. Similarly, we keep abreast with the latest developments in pollutant control technology including carbon capture and sequestration from both a capital/variable costs and performance (including co-benefits) perspective. The following pieces of pollutant control equipment are covered by our expertise:
- Wet/dry scrubber and dry sorbent injection (DSI): SO2
- SCR, SNCR, LNB, combustion zone optimization: NOx
- ACI, Halogenated ACI, COHPAC, fabric filter, cold side and hot side ESP: Hg
- Carbon capture and sequestration: CO2