Do North Carolinas electric cooperatives generate any of their own power?
North Carolinas electric cooperatives have ownership of a 28 percent share (644 megawatts of power) of the Catawba Nuclear Station in York County, South Carolina as well as, NCEMC-owned and operated peaking generators on the Outer Banks: one at Buxton (15 megawatts) and the other at Ocracoke (3 megawatts) NCEMC has announced plans to build two, approximately 300-megawatt peak generation facilities. These plants will use natural gas as the primary fuel and low sulfur fuel oil as a backup. As peak-load plants, they will primarily during times of high demand, such as the hottest summer days or coldest winter nights. Each plant is expected to operate about 700 to 1,200 hours a year, or about 10 percent of the time. North Carolina electric cooperative consumers will be the end users of these facilities. Construction began in late 2005 and early 2006 and both are planned to be online in 2007. Each plant is estimated to cost $150 million. The plants will be in Anson and Richmond counties.
