Edison International's (NYSE:EIX) electricity utility, Southern California Edison (SCE), requested state regulatory approval to conduct the nation's first feasibility assessment of combining several advanced "clean" coal technologies, on a full commercial scale, in an effort to advance these emerging approaches to low-carbon generation. 

Elements SCE Proposes Combining for the First Time

• A chemical process that captures as much as 90 percent of the carbon in domestic coal, the highest level targeted by a U.S. clean coal initiative;
• Producing a mostly hydrogen fuel and emitting only 10 percent of the carbon released by an integrated gasification1 combined-cycle coal project without carbon capture;
• Burning the hydrogen in a highly efficient, combined-cycle generating system;
• Sequestering the carbon in a depleted oil formation to create enhanced oil recovery or in a deep saline formation; and
• The use of these technologies in a full-scale, 600-megawatt (MW) commercial generating facility.

The advanced technologies in SCE's proposed study, an approach the utility calls Clean Hydrogen Power Generation (CHPG), are being considered or tested in clean coal projects elsewhere.  The SCE plan would be the first assessment of a full-scale, 600-MW facility using all of them.  It is an effort to advance the technology of low-emission power generation using coal, the nation's most secure, readily available, domestic fuel source.

"Edison believes that if California and the nation are to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants while increasing power supplies using domestic fuels, companies like ours must take the lead exploring the feasibility of these advanced technologies," said Edison International Chairman John Bryson. "For a century, our company has supported the commercial development of promising new technologies."

SCE is seeking authorization to commit $52 million of revenues it collects from customer rates during a two-year period to an advanced technology feasibility study.  If approved, this would represent less than a quarter of one percent of current customer rates.

"This proposal is part of a larger strategy we advocate for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions - increased purchases of renewable energy, increased support for energy efficiency, switching to cleaner transportation fuels, and investment in emerging clean generation technologies," said Bryson.