Healy Power Plant
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Healy Power Plant is a 90.0-megawatt (MW) lignite coal-fired power station owned and operated by the Golden Valley Electric Association near Healy, Alaska.
Contents
Location
Plant Data
- Owner: Golden Valley Electric Association
- Parent Company: Golden Valley Electric Association
- Plant Nameplate Capacity: 90.0 MW (Megawatts)
- Units and In-Service Dates: Unit 1: 28 MW (1967), Unit 2: 62 MW (1998)
- Location: 2.5 Mile Healy Spur Rd., Healy, AK 99743
- GPS Coordinates: 63.854972, -148.950891
- Technology: Subcritical
- Coal type: Lignite
- Coal Consumption:
- Coal Source: Usibelli Coal Mine ( Usibelli Coal Mine Inc)[1]
- Number of Employees:
- Unit Retirements:
Emissions Data
- CO2 Emissions: 297,372 tons (2006)
- SO2 Emissions: 470 tons (2002)
- SO2 Emissions per MWh: 4.28 lb/MWh
- NOx Emissions: 380 tons (2002)
- Mercury Emissions:
Background
The initial plant was 28 MW and began operating in 1967. A second 50 MW unit of $300 million was built in 1997. The new unit - known as Healy Unit 2 or the Healy Clean Coal Project - was part of a U.S. Department of Energy program to advance experimental coal-burning technology, but was plagued by safety and reliability problems during two years of sporadic use (1998-99). Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA) received permission from the Environmental Protection Agency in 2012 to restart the plant, and the utility acquired Healy Unit 2 the following year from the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority for about $44 million.[2] Healy Unit 2 began operating in May 2015, for the first time since 1999.[3]
Only two days after passing its commissioning test in March 2016, a “mill puff explosion” shut the plant down. As work crews began ramping the plant up to go online once more, a second mill puff explosion shut the plant down again in November 2016. The plant was determined to be in need of US$20 million in modifications. The plant is planned to be operational again in July 2018.[4] It returned to operation in September 2018.[5]
Opposition to Healy Plant
In March 2010 anti-coal groups targeted Golden Valley Electric Association's plan to restart an inactive Healy Power Plant but would have to go into debt as a result. The GVEA Ratepayers Alliance stated in response that the "black hole" for energy customers' money and opposed the plant's reopening.[6]
Articles and Resources
Sources
- ↑ "EIA 923 april 2019" EIA 923 2019.
- ↑ "Healy Clean Coal Plant" Golden Valley Electric Association website, August 2009
- ↑ Jeff Richardson,"Healy power plant online for first time since 1999," News Miner, May 29, 2015
- ↑ Kevin Baird, "GVEA says Healy 2 power plant should be ready in 2018," News Miner, Sep 6, 2017
- ↑ "GVEA declares Healy 2 power plant operational," Alaska Public Media, September 14, 2018
- ↑ "Anti-coal groups target Healy plant's debt" Associated Press, March 26, 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.
- NETL Coal Power Plant Database, National Energy Technology Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy, 2007.
- AirData Query Database, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accessed April 2009.
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