Gibbons Creek Steam Station
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Gibbons Creek Steam Station is a 453.5-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power station owned and operated by the Texas Municipal Power Agency near Carlos, Texas.
Contents
Location
Plant Data
- Owner: Texas Municipal Power Agency
- Parent Company: Cities of Bryan, Denton, Garland, and Greenville, TX
- Plant Nameplate Capacity: 453.5 MW (Megawatts)
- Units and In-Service Dates: Unit 1: 453.5 MW (1983)
- Location: F.M 244, Carlos, TX 77830
- GPS Coordinates: 30.617944, -96.082167
- Technology: Subcritical
- Coal type: Sub Bituminous
- Coal Consumption:
- Coal Source: Coal Creek Mine
- Number of Employees:
- Unit Retirements: Scheduled for retirement on October 23rd 2019 [1]
Closing Gibbons Creek
In July 2017 it was reported that, due to competition from lower-cost renewables and gas, the plant would only run during the hot summer months (June through September). Texas Municipal Power Agency (TMPA) has been looking to sell the coal plant for nearly a year.[2] According to the EIA 860M (November 2018), the power station was planned for retirement in Januari 2019.[3] On July 2nd 2019 the IEEFA reported the owners of the station decided to close the plant early and moved the retirement date up to Oct 23rd 2019 after already beeing mothballed since October 2018.
Emissions Data
- 2006 CO2 Emissions: 3,619,865 tons
- 2006 SO2 Emissions: 11,913 tons
- 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
- 2006 NOx Emissions: 2,323 tons
- 2005 Mercury Emissions: 265 lb.
Scrubber Retrofit at Gibbons Creek Steam Station
In March 2011, Texas Municipal Power Agency, which owns the coal-burning Gibbons Creek plant, stated they are installing a scrubber to meet new federal standards and limit the amount of mercury and other pollutant emissions. Workers are to have to installed the scrubber by April 1, 2011. The cost of the scrubber installation will run $98.5 million, stated the company.
Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Gibbons Creek Steam 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.[4] 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.[5]
Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Gibbons Creek Steam Station
| Type of Impact | Annual Incidence | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths | 3 | $23,000,000 |
| Heart attacks | 5 | $510,000 |
| Asthma attacks | 57 | $3,000 |
| Hospital admissions | 3 | $53,000 |
| Chronic bronchitis | 2 | $890,000 |
| Asthma ER visits | 4 | $1,000 |
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011
Articles and Resources
Sources
- ↑ http://ieefa.org/gibbons-creek-owners-make-it-official-texas-coal-plant-to-close-permanently-in-october/
- ↑ "Coal power plant lays off dozens, shuts down year-round operations," KBTX, July 20, 2017
- ↑ 860M: Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory, EIA, November 2018
- ↑ "The Toll from Coal: An Updated Assessment of Death and Disease from America's Dirtiest Energy Source," Clean Air Task Force, September 2010.
- ↑ "Technical Support Document for the Powerplant Impact Estimator Software Tool," Prepared for the Clean Air Task Force by Abt Associates, July 2010
- 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.
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