Your Energy Matters

The holiday season is a time when many of us are rushing around buying gifts, dropping in on holiday parties and making food for the office potluck. But this is also the season of giving as many local charities try to meet the extra demand from families who are in need of help. Helping to answer the call this holiday season, our employees at Mill Creek Station along with contractors from Zachry Industrial, Inc. held a food drive last month for Fern Creek Highview United Ministries.

Zachry Industrial, Inc. is a business partner of ours, and they are currently on-site at our Mill Creek Station constructing more than $900 million in upgrades to our coal-fired units in order to meet more stringent environmental standards in the coming years.

They share in our commitment to the community, and the November food drive is another example of how we’re working together to improve the areas in which we serve.

Teamwork Produces Tons of Food, Louisville Metro Council Recognition
LG&E employees and Zachry contractors made it a friendly competition of who could collect the most items. During the November food drive, 20 teams competed, with 10 people on each team. But the real winner was the ministry and disadvantaged members of our community, which received 25 tons of food from the drive.

“This was the third team-based giving competition between the LG&E team and Zachry, and each one has demonstrated the tremendous generosity of those involved,” said Philip Imber, manager of Major Capital Projects. “The general rule of thumb is $1 per pound, so the total value of the gift approached $50,000. That’s a tremendous contribution that will go to help many families in need.”

On Dec. 12, the Louisville Metro Council recognized Mill Creek employees and Zachry contractors for their generosity with a proclamation declaring Dec. 7 “Zachry Holdings, Inc. Mighty of Act of Compassion Day.”

Happy Falcon Friday!

Our young peregrine falcon chicks, which hatched just a few short weeks ago at our Mill Creek Station, are beginning to stretch their wings. Check out the video below and visit our falcon cam for a real-time look at the chicks' activity in our nesting box.

Our friends at the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources tell us that even after the young falcons take flight they'll continue to come back to the nesting box as a home base for a few months. Of course, as they get bigger, space inside the box is becoming more limited.

Imagine living in a one-room apartment with three other rowdy roommates...that's sort of like our nesting box at the moment. 

Our employees and generating facilities across Kentucky have been helping increase the peregrine falcon population since the early 1990s. Raptors such as peregrine falcons are near and dear to our hearts, and it's an honor to now be able to share with our customers our love for these birds up-close.  

Since late March, more than 24,000 viewers from 52 countries have watched Kentucky’s first peregrine falcon web camera while the falcon chicks hatched and grew from inside the falcon nest box at our Mill Creek Generating Station.


Today, the good folks with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources briefly removed the four chicks from the nest and banded them. 
The unique color bands allow biologists to identify individual falcons and track their success. The leg bands have different colors and number codes, which are inputted into a database along with the bird's gender, date of hatching and nesting place. This database is available for all departments of fish and wildlife in North America as a way to track the falcons.

Check out the photos and video below of the big day, and stay tuned to the falcon cam in the coming days as our young chicks take flight!





                                                                                                               

With more than $13 million invested in a public-private partnership to make Louisville the home of a new, one-of-a-kind agricultural product development facility at the Mill Creek Generating Station, LG&E and KU and Charah, Inc., along with state and local officials, reiterated today their commitment to innovative and beneficial use of coal combustion byproducts.

Earth day was an ideal time for today's event, which featured speakers such as Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Rand Paul; Commissioner of Agriculture James Comer; House Majority Floor Leader Rocky Adkins; Victor A. Staffieri, chairman, CEO and president of LG&E and KU Energy and Charles Price, president and CEO of Charah, Inc.

The Charah, Inc. SUL4R-PLUS^® Product Manufacturing Facility is the first facility of its type and represents a unique partnership between us and Charah. This new facility will recover approximately 300,000 tons of gypsum annually to create a unique sulfur product that will be sold to and distributed by agricultural companies.

Today's announcement follows a late November groundbreaking event at Mill Creek when we announced plans to spend approximately $940 million in clean coal technology at the station. All total, over the next five years, we'll invest approximately $6 billion in our system.

SUL4R-PLUS® product, in its unique patent-pending pelletized form, will help meet the increasing demand for sulfur by the regional farming industry. While synthetic gypsum has been used in agriculture applications in the past, Charah is the first to pelletize the byproduct, making sulfur application easier for the farmer.





Here's what the speakers at today's event had to say about the new facility:

"Innovative projects like this show how coal has and will continue to be a major contributor to the economic vitality of Kentucky and of the U.S., not just in the energy sector, but in science and innovation and now agriculture," McConnell said. "This first-of-its-kind facility will help improve our environment while creating 20 quality jobs in the process."

"Since 1980 because of the clean air investment by the utility industry in coal-fired generation, we have an astounding 83 percent decrease in the amount of sulfur emitted into our air. Charah and LG&E's approach with this project is simple: invest in clean air, but ensure our farmers have this vital nutrient for their crops," Comer added.

"It's exciting to have this ground-breaking facility in our Commonwealth and it demonstrates how innovation and collaboration can pay long-term dividends for Kentucky and the environment," Adkins said.

"This pioneering facility is a perfect example of entrepreneurial success," said Paul. "With coal being the largest source of electricity generation in Kentucky and worldwide, it is exciting to see this innovative project, which will expand the use of coal byproduct, benefiting our environment and creating jobs."

Mill Creek currently produces nearly 600,000 tons of gypsum per year. At full capacity, more than 50 percent of Mill Creek's gypsum will be beneficially used. The new facility will recycle byproducts to benefit the environment, provide lower costs to our customers and create an innovative agricultural product.

The facility is expected to create 20 new jobs when at full capacity by 2014.

As we celebrate our centennial year, we continue to take a look back at the people and projects that brought us to the present day and helped shape our future.

Since we're in the largest construction phase in our company's history, it's fitting to share the following story about our Mill Creek Station from one of our employee publications back in the early 1970s.

At the time, we were constructing a unit that is still in operation today. It was equipped with emission controls that were ahead of its time back then.

Since the early 70s, our Mill Creek generating station has produced low-cost energy to serve our residential, commercial and industrial customers.

To ensure our compliance with the EPA’s latest round of regulations was accomplished in the most cost-effective way, we spent an enormous amount of time researching the best technology, and planning, designing, and engineering the final outcome.

And, with our groundbreaking last November, we began nearly $940 million in environmental upgrades at the plant, extending the life of the facility for several more decades.

Mill Creek's upgrades will allow us to continue to use Kentucky coal while further improving our environmental controls. When complete, 98 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions will be captured. In addition, mercury and particulate emissions will be further reduced by half.

We are fortunate to be among the first utilities in the nation to receive approval for our environmental upgrades. As a result, we were able to announce more than $500 million in savings for customers, and of that amount, $300 million in savings were realized at Mill Creek. 

The article below details the early days of the plant. We'll continue to share pieces of our past with you, and you can learn more about our history at www.lge-ku.com/centennial.  

Two years ago, a red-tail hawk landed at our Mill Creek Station with little hope of flying again.

Found on the side of the plant road by employees, the emaciated raptor hid under a vehicle that stopped out of concern for its safety.

Thanks to our ongoing partnership with Raptor Rehab, employees knew the right people to call and cared for the injured hawk until officials took him in.



After several months of aggressive treatment, the hawk took flight again earlier this week close to the spot where it originally landed, with a few of the plant’s employees gathered in support.

Protecting Kentucky’s raptors is not a new concept for LG&E and KU. Since the 1990s, our utilities’ power plants have played host to many raptor species through our nesting box initiative, which was highlighted last year on KET’s Kentucky Afield.

And, as part of our Avian Protection Plan, we continue to provide resources and financial support for the rehabilitation of injured or malnourished raptors, like the one released at Mill Creek.

We also cover or mark power lines where needed to allow safe perching.

These are just a few of the ways we’re protecting Kentucky’s natural resources.

If you’d like to help us in our support of Raptor Rehab, check out their website for information on how to volunteer or donate.

Until next time, keep using energy safely and wisely.

And, keep an eye to the sky for that red-tail hawk.