Conemaugh Generating Station

Conemaugh Generating Station
Conemaugh Generating Station
	Conemaugh Generating Station
Country	United States
Location	West Wheatfield Township, Indiana County, near New Florence, Pennsylvania
Coordinates	40°23′05″N 79°03′49″W
Status	Operational
Commission date	Unit 1: May, 1970; Unit 2: May, 1971
Owner(s)	PSEG Fossil, others
Thermal power station
Primary fuel	Bituminous coal
Secondary fuel	Coal synfuel
Turbine technology	Steam turbine
Cooling towers	2 × Natural Draft
Cooling source	Conemaugh River
Power generation
Nameplate capacity	1872 MW
External links
Commons	Related media on Commons

The Conemaugh Generating Station is a 1,872 MW baseload coal-powered plant located on 1,750 acres (710 ha), across the Conemaugh River from New Florence in Western Pennsylvania.

Facility

The station generates enough electricity to light 17 million 100-watt bulbs. The facility consists of two steam turbines, which began commercial operation in 1970 and 1971, and two cooling towers.

The main turbines run on steam produced by twin year-around 850 MWe boilers,[1] each as tall as a 14-story building. The plant uses more than 4 million tons of coal each year. Conemaugh has two hyperbolic natural draft cooling towers which provide recirculating water to cool and condense the steam and to limit the amount of water needed from the river.

The plant is one of several in the area, situated near Pennsylvania deep mines and is basically a twin of the Keystone Generating Station, partially owned by PSEG Power.

Controlling emissions

To control air pollution emissions, the plant is equipped with electrostatic precipitators and low-NOx burners. A wet limestone flue-gas desulfurization system was installed in the mid 1990s. The plant donated a particularly scenic portion of the site, known locally as Buttermilk Falls, to Indiana County for use as a wildlife refuge.

Company

The plant employs about 200 people and is one of the largest employers in Indiana County. It is a subsidiary of GenOn Energy Inc.

Water pollution

In March 2011, PennEnvironment and the Sierra Club won a favorable court ruling finding that the plant had committed 8,684 violations of the Clean Water Act by discharging wastewater directly into the Conemaugh River. On June 6, 2011 GenOn agreed to a $5 million settlement with $3.75 million going toward the restoration of the river.[2]

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References

"Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2008" (Excel). Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy. 2008. Retrieved 2009-11-28.
Puko, Timothy (2011-06-06). "Conemaugh River power plant agrees to $5M pollution settlement". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Archived from the original on 2013-01-31.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] "Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2008" (Excel). Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy. 2008. Retrieved 2009-11-28.

[2] Puko, Timothy (2011-06-06). "Conemaugh River power plant agrees to $5M pollution settlement". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Archived from the original on 2013-01-31.