UD/TDC Update: FOIA'd DNREC Regulatory Advisory Service 2011 TDC Document "Lost" Then "Found" By State

(The Data Centers LLC Project - September 3rd community meeting - watch it HERE.)

 
Lots to report and Meeting Reminders - 

• UD Homecoming: Yes! UD Power Plant: No! Saturday 10AM - Noon

• UD Faculty Senate TDC Power Plant Meeting Monday 4PM At Mitchell Hall 

• Newark City Council 7PM Monday for presentation of the petition.

Newarkers got the brush off from Jack Markell last night, not that it was unexpected - Gov. Markell defends Newark computer center plan. Stay Tuned.

And, as a follow up to the Town Hall Meeting 09-24-2013, Dr. Willett Kempton has a Delaware Voice column today which was paired with a pro-jobs, pro-TDC column by union-faves, Reps. Mulrooney, Osienski, D.E. Williams, J.J. Johnson, Brady and Keeley (my comments in red) ~ Delaware Voice: Newark Data Center project offers unique opportunity

This project will be powered by a dedicated, efficient and environmentally  sound combined heat and power facility using clean-burning natural gas. TDC’s energy hub is designed with extra generation capacity to ensure 100 percent uptime.Opponents of the project like to refer to it as a “power plant,” purposely evoking images of contaminant-belching smokestacks. The architectural design of the proposed energy hub will bear no resemblance to a power plant. (PuhLEASE - the good Representatives are being bogus and ridiculous to characterize the proposed power plant opponents as focused on 'imagery')

.........The Data Centers should be applauded for selecting the site of the former Newark Chrysler plant for its first project. Specifically, it will be located on the footprint of Chrysler’s paint shop, which emitted huge amounts of volatile organic compounds and other pollutants. (WHAT? TDC requires approval for air permits for annual emissions of 81.3 tons per year of VOC and 74.11 tons per year NOx, 2000 tons daily of C02) The ground is heavily contaminated, making it unusable for residential or retail use. (This statement is patently NOT TRUE. Brownfield remediation by the state is taking care of that (See: DNREC's 2011 TDC RAS HERE.) Depending on the extent (meaning cost) of the clean up, any brownfield can be made suitable for residential or retail use See: City of Newark Budd Company site HERE.)
During the 2½-year construction phase of the project, 5,000 construction jobs will be created (in a manner of speaking only. It is actually between 1 and 2 thousand temporary jobs.) TDC expects to hire 290 full-time employees at an average annual salary of $63,000 (TDC website Q and A says an average wage of $60,467 but the estimate is as low as 48K) and about 50 part-time workers.TDC’s customer companies will need about 300 to 350 additional people for data mangement positions (This number is not supported by online research of data center employees). The new facility and its employees mean local businesses and governments will benefit from increased spending and tax revenue.

Too bad these elected officials are spreading misinformation from the TDC camp:  The Data Centers admitted at the Sept. 3rd meeting that when they said 5,000 construction jobs, it was a 'certain' way of saying there will be 1 or 2 thousand jobs over 2.5 years. Don't continue to repeat this misinformation, please!

Newark is the most densely populated area of the state. Why is UD courting a power plant for our city? - yes it is a power plant thank you very much. 

The CHP electricity generation model uses natural gas turbines and jet engines which are cleaner than coal but by no means cleaner that renewables. TDC says they require approval for air permits for annual emissions of 81.3 tons per year of VOC and 74.11 tons per year NOx, 2000 tons daily of C02 and use of 3 million gallons of water per day at peak usage (See: TDC Q and A below).

Willett Kempton writes ~ Delaware Voice: Size of proposed TDC power plant raises questions

A startup company called The Data Centers LLC (hence TDC) has proposed to build a data center at the University of Delaware’s STAR campus the site of the old Chrysler plant. TDC will provide data storage and processing for outside clients such as financial institutions.
TDC also proposes to build a separate 248-megawatt power plant to provide electricity to run the data center and wants to sell excess power to the city of Newark. TDC says that building its own power plant is an innovation; large data centers such as Google, Facebook and Apple do not build large, isolated power plants and run “off grid.”
I have been asked to comment on the proposal, drawing on my expertise on the electric power sector. In my work at the University of Delaware, I work with many power companies. I have developed and now operate two small research power plants.
Proponents say the power plant will be more environmentally beneficial than the previous Chrysler plant operation. It will run on “clean natural gas,” will comply with state regulations on criteria pollutants, will make use of waste heat (combined heat and power), and will capture some fraction of the CO2 the plant will emit.
A further benefit is that the data center and the power plant would be built from the ground up, creating jobs during construction. In the long term, TDC will create 260 permanent jobs in the data center and 30 more in the power plant. The data center would tap into fiber optics lines running through area, possibly attracting other data businesses.
At a time when Delaware’s unemployment rate hovers around 7.3 percent the opportunity to create temporary jobs during construction and long-term jobs during operation is an attractive one. Also, given current emissions requirements, the plant will be cleaner than the oldest power plants in Delaware.
However, the scale of the power plant is oddly large. How much is 248 megawatts? Most large national data centers use 30 to 50 megawatts of electricity.
The city of Newark uses a total of 50 megawatts. So the proposed power plant could power five cities the size of Newark. Why does this data center require so much more power than others?Is this really a commercial power plant by another name?
 TDC says that they need to build this big power plant to provide reliable power to the data center. The STAR campus has three high voltage transmission lines already in place (high voltage lines are different from the distribution lines that serve neighborhoods, and sometimes go down in storms). Each of the three high voltage lines coming into the STAR campus has enough power to run the data center.
The typical high voltage line’s reliability is at least 99.99 percent. Compare that with a well-run power plant is reliable 95 percent of the time. If you were a customer relying on TDC for your critical data needs, would you rather have 99.99 percent reliability or 95 percent reliability?
The scale of the power plant also nullifies its purported environmental benefits. Combined and heat power systems provide electricity and heat. This is advantageous if you are consuming the heat on-site. Because TDC is proposing to produce five times the electricity needed by the Newark, for example, the power plant will produce vastly more heat than what can be used. The environmental benefit of this “efficiently produced” heat is lost when vented.
A new plant will have lower pollution than the average existing power plant. But cleaner pollution per unit of power is nullified both by the huge amount of power and by emitting those pollutants in the middle of a large population.
Lastly, TDC will separate some of the power plant’s CO2, emissions, the main greenhouse gas causing climate change. But this is again misleading – by separating the CO2 and selling it to the food and beverage industry, as TDC proposes to do, the CO2 is sequestered only as long as it takes for the consumer to pop open the bottle of soda containing the “sequestered” CO2. Thus, the power plant is still adding 4 million pounds of CO2 per day to the atmosphere.
Placing a large power plant in Newark is unnecessary to operating a data center at this site – in fact, it reduces the reliability of the data center.
And the community might ask, are the extra 10 percent of permanent jobs in the power plant worth the negative impacts to the city, the university and the state?

Meanwhile, this must-read (about a meeting TDC omitted on their Sept. 3rd power point) document FOIA'd by Green Delaware's Alan Muller was lost by the State and then found again and dropped into my inbox yesterday ~ DNREC's Division of Air Quality had this advice for The Data Centers LLC on Nov 22, 2011 -  http://www.nonewarkpowerplant.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/The-Data-Centers-RAS-Info-Sheet.pdf

From: Alan Muller 

Date: Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 12:48 PM
Subject: Fwd: RAS Meeting - The Data Centers

This showed up this morning.  These "data center" people seem to have a constantly changing story. Does anybody know how long ago it was that Chrysler burned coal (if ever)?

From: "Jacobs, Michelle V. (DNREC)" Michelle.Jacobs@state.de.us
To: "Alan Muller 
Subject: RAS Meeting - The Data Centers
Thread-Topic: RAS Meeting - The Data Centers
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 

Greetings Mr. Muller.

A while ago you requested to know if a Regulatory Advisory Service (RAS) meeting was held for a project being called The Data Centers.  At that time I told you no; however, that was incorrect.  In searching for some other things I came across a Data Centers folder containing information from a RAS meeting that was held back on November 22, 2011.  I have scanned the information and have attached it for you in response to your previous FOIA request. 

Regards,
Michelle Jacobs
Small Business Ombudsman
DNREC – Office of Community Services
89 Kings Highway, Dover, DE  19901
302-739-9069 Phone   *   302-739-6242 Fax

Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2013 2:01 PM

Subject: Fwd: RAS Meeting - The Data Centers

Please forward to all interested parties, including City Council since apparently the TDC has been working more secretively for a longer time without knowledge of the neighbors or this - State Rep. John Kowalko

Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2013 2:05 PM

To: O'Mara, Collin P. (DNREC)
Subject: FW: RAS Meeting - The Data Centers

I find this information rather disturbing in light of the fact that it seems to confirm a manipulative secrecy deliberately keeping details from the residents and their duly elected State Representative. Please feel free to assuage my suspicions. - State Rep. John Kowalko 

With some comment rescues ~

- This sets the timeline back to 2011 for UD/State/TDC negotiations, so the current timeline that we have been given by TDC is not correct.

- TDC has been talking about 80tpy of NOx.  What I find most upsetting is that the Energy dept had "no comments" on the proposal.  WTF?  No comments on a power plant?

- I see Amy Mann's comment to them that they ought to keep NOx emissions below 25 tons per year as there are few NOx credits to be found...

- I have no recollection of a coal-fired plant on site, but I was pretty young back in the late 1950s...

- Especially poignant is the admonishment that 'community involvement is very important and that they should involve the community as early as possible'.

And from Alan Muller ~ 

In my opinion, this is a key problem with how environmental "regulation" works.  The regulators connive for as-long-as-it-takes with applicants and only roll out something to the public after they have a deal or permit they are prepared to defend.  By the time the public finds out it is very hard for public input to change much.  And add to this that the regulators' marching orders are to grease the skids, not scrutinize proposals with health and environmental considerations foremost.

In this case, the generating capacity is plainly out of all proportion to the needs of a data center and the paperwork shows that the promoters are seeking a power purchase agreement with DEMEC.  Point being, DNREC and DEDO age greasing the skids for a proposal that doesn't make sense on its face.  But notice in the report that Tom Noyes, who is supposed to be the energy guy, had nothing to say.....

Years ago, when Nick DiPasquale was heading up DNREC, I tried to get him to notify us of the "Regulatory Advisory Service" meetings.  He refused absolutely.

This is something where the General Assembly could help:  Require that these RAS meetings be public noticed, and that all permit applications be public noticed as soon as received...

Remember, this is what the UD promised its STAR campus would look like......

And this is the TDC Project Time Line....

March 12, 2012: City of Newark adopts STC zoning code for STAR Campus

This means that the UD/TDC met with DNREC about a full fledged power plant on site 7 months before the City of Newark approved the rezoning of the property!!

September 3 Public Meeting - Questions and Answers ~ 
TDC's Q and A Section V - Environment

V (1) How does the environmental impact of this facility compare to the auto plant it replaces? a. The former Chrysler plant was permitted to emit 1,112.8 tons per year of VOC and approximately 135.7 tons per year of NOx to the atmosphere. TDC is estimating that we will emit a maximum of 81.3 tons per year of VOC and 74.11 tons per year NOx.

V (2) Was an environmental impact study performed?

a. Not only was an impact study performed on this property but the facility is

regulated by federal and state environmental agencies. Public exposure to air

emissions is regulated by the EPA and State of Delaware through permitting and

reporting requirements. TDC will need to prove that emissions from the facility

will not degrade air or stormwater quality.

b. By producing energy from natural gas and using advanced emissions control

technology and highly efficient turbines, the facility will operate as one of the

cleanest CHP facilities of its kind in the U.S.

V (3) What will your emissions be?

a. The overall design and operating philosophy of TDC is “reuse, recapture and

recycle”. Federal and State of Delaware emission standards require this facility to

utilize Lowest Achievable Emission Rates (LAER) technology for nitrogen oxide

(NOx) and volatile organic compound (VOC) emission control. Likewise, Best

Available Control Technology (BACT) is required for particulate matter, sulfur

dioxide, and carbon monoxide emissions. Additionally, air dispersion modeling is

required to demonstrate that the new emissions will not deteriorate air quality.

b. Of all the criteria constituents measured throughout the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, the facility’s expected emissions are low level NOx, low level CO and CO2. TDC plans to include a CO2 emissions extraction system on the property, which will actually remove much of those gasses from the exhaust stacks, and use it for other productive purposes.

c. Through our emissions engineering, risk mitigation process, and compliance with the Clean Air Act, the facility will be utilizing best available control technology and lowest achievable emission reduction systems, such as low NOx technology, selective catalytic reduction systems and catalytic oxidation systems to reduce or eliminate common pollutants normally associated with heat process emissions, in addition to the inherent minimization of emissions that will stem for incorporating cogeneration and combined-cycle power generation in the CHP .

d. All emissions will be equal to or better than the applicable state and federal guidelines we follow when measuring air quality.

V (4) Air permit process, next couple weeks? Application and approval in same time span? What about public hearings on air permit?

a. TDC anticipates submitting our air permit in September, which will then follow the standard air permitting process required by state and federal environmental

regulators. As with any other facility, we must demonstrate compliance with

applicable state and federal regulations. The process will take several months to

complete after the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental

Control (DNREC) accepts our application.

V (5) Will exhaust emissions be clear?

a. All emissions must meet state and federal regulations. Exhaust emissions will be clear due to the fact that we will be combusting natural gas. White Vapor, which is simply water vapor, may be noticeable at times, under certain combinations of

atmospheric conditions, emanating from our cooling towers.

V (6) Say the power plant does not conform to the procedures made this evening, in reference to air and water quality, noise, property value, etc. Who will be ultimately responsible? You, the power plant operators? The trustee of the university? The city of Newark? a. TDC

V (8) How do you plan on reducing NOx emissions? Will you have a storage site for chemicals used in catalytic converters like ammonia? How big will chemical tanks be?

a. As noted throughout this document, TDC is committed to using Best Available

Control Technology (BACT) by using low NOx technology in our combustion

equipment (gas turbines and reciprocating gas engines) to minimize the formation of NOx to minimize emissions. First, TDC will invest in Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) a means to significantly reduce NOx to 1 to 2 parts per million (ppm) An additional SCR scrubber will be placed in the stack to serve as a secondary means of capture. Additionally, a NOx sensor will be part of the SCR system and will monitor the levels of NOx being released into the air. Lastly, a Continuous Emissions Monitoring System (CEMS) will be part of the emissions control system and will monitor the levels of substances being released into the air.

b. TDC will be storing Anhydrous Ammonia (liquid form) which is required for use in the Selective Catalytic Reduction units used to eliminate nitrogen oxides in exhaust gas. This material will be stored in an above ground, double walled storage tank located in a lined containment dike capable of storing 110% capacity, with monitoring. Storage will comply with Federal, State of Delaware and City of Newark Fire Marshal regulations.

V (9) a. Emissions are estimated to be less than half of a comparable sized fossil fuel facility

including coal fired plants

V (10) How will you be monitoring CO2? Will it be public information?

a. CO2 will be monitored continuously and reported to appropriate regulatory agencies and that information will be publicly available.

b. Please remember that CO2 emissions are not currently regulated under the Clean Air Act, however, the EPA has been suggesting a regulatory limit in the future of 1,000 pounds of CO2 per MW/h of electricity produced. Our facility (without CO2 capture) is projected to produce 828 pounds of CO2 per MW/h, which will be well under the proposed standards.

c. While it would not be necessary for compliance, the voluntary CO2 capture we are considering supports our sustainability goals.

V (17) Originally there was talk of the use of fuel cells to obtain electricity from natural gas, but now we hear of turbines, which imply combustion – a much more polluting process. Which is it?

a. TDC has considered the use of fuel cells for a small part of the TDC operation.

However, the cost of implementing this type of solution for the TDC project would

make this project unfeasible. Fuel cells are much more expensive to implement and maintain than most any other alternative solution now being deployed.

V (18) What are the construction materials stored on site, that could explode? What are the risks of an explosion for those living with 1/4th mile? ½ mile? What will the evacuation procedure be?

a. This site will not store nor use explosive materials in the construction process.

b. The facility will comply with all municipal, state and federal requirements

regarding emergency procedures, and currently there are no required evacuation

procedures.

V (23) Will this campus be loud and what steps will you be taking to reduce the sound?

a. The City of Newark has stringent noise requirements. The facility will comply with the City of Newark noise ordinance, which includes provisions that industrial users adjoining residential districts must comply with noise requirements of the residential district at their (TDC’s) property line. TDC commits that any noise it generates will be within what the law dictates. Our engineers have developed specifications for this project that incorporate acoustical deadening technology of noise sources and to place noise producing equipment within structural enclosures (buildings) to the extent practical, in an effort to further reduce noise releases to exterior areas. Other features may be incorporated into the landscaping and site layout to further reduce noise.

b. Acoustical deadening technology is an integral part of the facility’s design. The

decibel level at the edge of the STAR campus, which is where regulators would

measure sound levels, will be about the same as normal conversation, as specified by the City of Newark ordinance requirement of 52 decibels at our property line adjoining a residential district.

- City of Newark Code Chapter 20A – Noise,

V (29) How much water will you be using?

a. Water consumption will be limited to steam production and cooling towers, aside from equipment cleaning and maintenance. The currently projected water demand is less than 3 million gallons per day at our peak usage that will occur two months out of the year. Water will be supplied by United Water of Delaware and is not coming from the City of Newark. Sanitary water for toilets and urinals will be obtained from gray water, collected stormwater and air conditioning condensate, rather than treated potable water. Similarly, landscape irrigation, which will be minimized by design, will use gray water.

What is important to know going forward ~ Newark City Council takes a stand

~*~