Sandow power station

{{#badges: CoalSwarm}} Sandow Station was a coal-fired power station near Rockdale, Texas. Units 1-3 were owned by Alcoa and units 4-5 by Luminant of Vistra Energy.

Units 1-3 were retired by Alcoa under consent decree in 2009. Units 4-5 were retired in January 2018 due to economic factors such as low natural gas prices and growth in renewable energy.

Location

The power station is located southwest of Rockdale, Texas in Milam County, Texas.

Plant Data

• Owner/Parent Company: Alcoa (Units 1-3), Vistra Energy (Units 4-5)
• Plant Nameplate Capacity: 1535 MW (Megawatts)
• Units and In-Service Dates: 121 MW (1953), 121 MW (1954), 121 MW (1954), 591 MW (1981), 581 MW (2009)
• Location: Rockdale, TX 76567
• GPS Coordinates: 30.564167, -97.063889
• Coal Consumption:
• Coal Source:
• Number of Employees:

Units 1-3

Units 1-3 of the coal power plant was commissioned by Alcoa in 1953-1954 to power its nearby aluminium smelting facility.

The power plant uses lignite from the Three Oaks Mine in nearby Bastrop County, Texas. Transmission of electricity to the nearby aluminum smelter stopped in 2008 when Alcoa ceased smelting operations at its Rockdale facility and accused Luminant of power supply issues.

Units 1-3 were retired by Alcoa under consent decree in 2009.

Alcoa, Inc. Clean Air Act Settlement

On April 9, 2003 the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. EPA announced a settlement agreement with Alcoa Inc. for an estimated $330 million to install a new coal-fired power plant at its aluminum production facility in Rockdale, Texas with upgraded pollution controls to help eliminate sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.

The settlement resolved allegations filed in federal court by the EPA and its co-plaintiffs, Neighbors for Neighbors, Inc., Environmental Defense, and Public Citizen that the company had unlawfully operated the Sandow Station since it overhauled the Rockdale power plant without installing necessary pollution controls and without first obtaining proper permits required by the New Source Review program of the Clean Air Act.

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's executive director Margaret Hoffman said, “As a result of this joint investigation and cooperative effort between state and federal officials, Texans will enjoy cleaner air. That's a victory for everyone.”

The EPA notes that Alcoa's coal-fired plant, located in northeast of Austin, was the single largest non-utility source of SO2 and NOx emissions in the country. The plant generates electricity for two aluminum smelters and a strip-mining operation that supplies lignite coal for the power plant. The aluminum at the plant is used for truck wheels, cans, die-casts, machinery, components for telecommunication devices and appliances.

Alcoa also paid a $1.5 million civil suit and $2.5 million on two additional environmental projects in an attempt to offset past emissions.

Unit 4

Unit 4 with nameplate capacity of 591 MW was commissioned in 1981. It is owned by Dallas-based Luminant and is located on-site of the smelting plant to provide power for it. In 2008, Alcoa and Luminant fought over the operation of Sandow 4 and pricing issues. In June 2008, Alcoa idled half the Rockdale smelting plant’s production, citing the high cost of buying replacement power when Luminant’s on-site Sandow unit was was shut numerous times for maintenance. In September 2008 Alcoa said it will continue to pay its cost of generation from Sandow Unit 4 and will attempt to recover that cost by marketing the power in the Texas energy market.

Unit 5

Sandow 5 is a 581 MW unit that uses circulating fluidized bed technology and burns Texas lignite coal. It is owned by Luminant (formerly TXU) of Vistra Energy. Sandow 5 is the fifth coal-fired plant at the Sandow Station. Luminant bought rights to build Sandow 5 (and the accompanying permit) from Alcoa in 2005. In August 2006, TXU and Alcoa went to court to loosen the terms of the 2003 consent decree, but were rebuked by U.S District Judge Sam Sparks. Construction was permitted in March 2007, when the U.S. District Court approved a stipulated resolution of the consent decree for the plant. This followed a lengthy litigation of TXU’s proposed 11 plants by a coalition of environmental groups.

In July 2009, Luminant announced that the Sandow 5 unit would not go into full operation before September. Although the unit was synchronized to the grid and producing power in early July, construction delays and equipment issues prevented it from meeting a deadline for operation and emissions standards. The company expects the delay to take two or three months.

Sandow Unit 5 began operating in late September 2009.

Retirement of units 4-5

In October 2017 plant owner Luminant said it plans to retire the power station by January 11, 2018. The company also plans to retire its Big Brown Steam Electric Station. According to Luminant: "These two plants are economically challenged in the competitive ERCOT market. Sustained low wholesale power prices, an oversupplied renewable generation market, and low natural gas prices, along with other factors, have contributed to this decision."

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) approved the shut down the following month. ERCOT found the plant was "not required to support ERCOT transmission system reliability," and closed by January 11, 2018.

Emissions Data (total for all units)

• 2006 CO₂ Emissions: 4,901,917 tons
• 2006 SO₂ Emissions: 23,747 tons
• 2006 SO₂ Emissions per MWh:
• 2006 NO_x Emissions: 4,307 tons
• 2005 Mercury Emissions: 524 lb.

Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Sandow Station

In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants. Fine particle pollution consists of a complex mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Among these particles, the most dangerous are those less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and illnesses are major examples of coal's external costs, i.e. uncompensated harms inflicted upon the public at large. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. To monetize the health impact of fine particle pollution from each coal plant, Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.

Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Sandow Station

Type of Impact	Annual Incidence	Valuation
Deaths	8	$62,000,000
Heart attacks	13	$1,400,000
Asthma attacks	160	$8,000
Hospital admissions	6	$150,000
Chronic bronchitis	5	$2,400,000
Asthma ER visits	9	$4,000

Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011

Articles and Resources

Sources

• Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2005, Energy Information Administration, accessed Jan. 2009.
• Environmental Integrity Project, "Dirty Kilowatts: America’s Most Polluting Power Plants", July 2007.
• Facility Registry System, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accessed Jan. 2009.
• Carbon Monitoring for Action database, accessed Feb. 2009.

Related SourceWatch Articles

• Sandow Unit 5
• Existing U.S. Coal Plants
• Texas and coal
• Alcoa
• United States and coal
• Global warming
• EPA Coal Plant Settlements