Chalk Point Generating Station

The Chalk Point Generating Station is a 2,647-MWe electricity-generating plant owned by NRG Energy, located near the tiny incorporated town of Eagle Harbor, Maryland, United States, on the Patuxent River.

Chalk Point Generating Station
Chalk Point Generating Station in 2007
CountryUnited States
LocationEagle Harbor, Maryland
Coordinates38°32′37″N 76°41′19″W
StatusOperational
Commission date
  • 1964
Owner(s)NRG Energy
Thermal power station
Primary fuelCoal (Units 1 & 2)
Secondary fuelOil and natural gas (Unit 3 & 4)
Power generation
Units operational2 × 364 MWe (Units 1 & 2)
2 × 659 MWe Unit 3 & 4)
External links
CommonsRelated media on Commons

Individual Units

The facility consists of several units:

Units ST1 and ST2 are coal-fired dry-bottom, wall-fired steam generating plants rated at 364 MWe each. They were put into service in 1964 and 1965.
Units 3 and 4 are oil and natural gas fired units rated at 659 MWe each, put into service in 1975 and 1981. These units are cooled by natural draft cooling towers.

The site also contains six combustion turbines owned and operated by Mirant.

Oil-fired units GT1 and GT2 (put into service in 1967 and 1974) are rated at 16 MWe and 35 MWe.
Oil/gas-fired units GT3–GT6 (put into service in 1991) are rated at 103, 103, 125, and 125 MWe respectively.
A seventh oil/gas-fired combustion turbine, unit SGT1, is rated at 94 MWe (put into service in 1990). It is owned by the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO). This turbine is operated by Mirant under an agreement which expires in 2015.[1]

The combined name-plate capacity of all seven combustion turbines is 601 MWe.[2] [3]

History

The Chalk Point plant began service in 1964.[4] All of the GenOn generating units at the Chalk Point Generating Station were built by the Potomac Electric Power Company, which sold them to the Southern Company in December 2000 as a result of the restructuring of the electricity generating industry in Maryland. The station was included in the Mirant spin-off from the Southern Company in April 2001. Mirant was merged into GenOn Energy in 2010,[5] and GenOn merged into NRG in 2012.[6]

Fuel delivery

Coal is delivered to the Chalk Point generating station by CSX Transportation trains via the Herbert Subdivision, a former Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) line. This line is accessed via the Amtrak Northeast Corridor line, with coal being delivered from trains staged at the CSX Benning Yard (also former PRR facilities) in Anacostia, Washington, DC. These trains are brought from the coal fields via the CSX Metropolitan Subdivision and Cumberland Subdivision down the Potomac River valley from Cumberland, Maryland.

Dispatch of electricity

The electrical output of Chalk Point Generating Station is dispatched by the PJM Interconnection regional transmission organization.[4]

Environment

Chalk Point plant is by far the leading polluter in Prince George's County, Maryland, according to pollution research site Scorecard.org.[7] It produced 5,271,800 pounds (2,391 metric tons) of air pollution (not counting CO2) and 3,702 pounds (1.7 metric tons) of water pollution in 2002. (The second largest polluter, the USDA's Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, produced 79,550 pounds (36 metric tons) of mostly land pollution in 2002.)

In August 2018, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) required three generating stations, including Chalk Point, to meet current federal wastewater standards (effluent guidelines) by November 2020. The plants are discharging arsenic and mercury to their respective receiving waters according to 1980s-era standards under expired permits. Upgrading the plants' treatment systems to Maryland's current standards "could reduce discharges of toxic metals by 97 percent."[8] The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published the updated federal standards in 2015.[9]

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gollark: There might be issues with international waters?
gollark: I will consult our legal counsel, but this should be doable.
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See also

References
  1. 2006 Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative Annual Report, p. 19
  2. "Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2006" (Excel). Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy. 2006. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  3. Maryland Department of Natural Resources (2007-04-02). "Environmental Review of the Proposed Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) Project at the Chalk Point Generating Station" (PDF). Maryland Public Service Commission Case No. 9086 docket. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04.
  4. GenOn Energy, Houston, TX. "Chalk Point Generating Station." Archived November 9, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Accessed 2011-06-28.
  5. de la Merced, Michael J. (2010-04-12). "Merger of Energy Producers To Form $3 Billion Company". New York Times.
  6. de la Merced, Michael J. (2012-07-23). "NRG Energy to Buy GenOn in Move to Bolster Stocks and Cut Costs". New York Times.
  7. "Environmental Releases for Chalk Point Generating Station". scorecard.org. 2002.
  8. Dance, Scott (2018-08-14). "Maryland requires three coal power plants to limit arsenic, mercury water pollution starting in 2020". Baltimore Sun.
  9. "Steam Electric Power Generating Effluent Guidelines - 2015 Final Rule". Washington, D.C.: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 2018-11-30.
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