Purdue shelves plans to rebuild coal power plant

September 26, 2011

Purdue University is evaluating its energy options after trustees voted to scrap a planned $54.5 million retrofit of the 51-year-old Wade Utility Plant. The original plan to replace the obsolete Boiler #1 with a cleaner-burning, more efficient circulating fluidized bed coal boiler was abandoned in the face of uncertainty over future coal prices and coming environmental rules.

According to university trustee Mike Berghoff, the decade-old decision to make the conversion was no longer in Purdue’s best interests. “If you look at [the cancellation] purely as an economic issue, it absolutely makes sense,” he told a local newspaper. Although Purdue has already spent $4.2 million on the project, which may grow to $4.5 million once all the close-out costs are included, officials felt that cancelling the project made more economic sense.

The initial thought was to convert the facility to burn natural gas, but those plans have also been put on the back burner pending a forthcoming master plan for managing the university’s growing energy needs. That plan is expected sometime this fall.

Purdue issued $54.5 million in bonds to finance the project. Since the cancellation, the university has been redirecting the remaining dollars from the bonds to other projects on its West Lafayette campus.