Naughton Power Plant
{{#badges: CoalSwarm}} Naughton Power Plant was a 832-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power station owned and operated by PacifiCorp of MidAmerican Energy near Kemmerer, Wyoming.
Unit 3 (384 MW) was retired in 2019, leaving 448 MW operating.
Contents
Location
Plant Data
- Owner: PacifiCorp
- Parent Company: MidAmerican Energy (owned by Berkshire Hathaway)
- Plant Nameplate Capacity: 832.0 MW (Megawatts)
- Units and In-Service Dates: Unit 1: 192.0 MW (1963), Unit 2: 256.0 MW (1968), Unit 3: 384.0 MW (1971)
- Location: 1025 Sublette Dr., Kemmerer, WY 83101
- GPS Coordinates: 41.757232, -110.597654
- Technology: Subcritical
- Coal type: Sub-bituminous
- Coal Consumption:
- Coal Source: Kemmerer Mine (Kemmerer)[1]
- Number of Employees:
- Unit Retirements: Unit 3 retired in January 2019, Unit 1 and 2 are scheduled for retirement in 2025.
Retirements
In 2014 PacifiCorp said unit 3 will be closed by 2017, and will switch on six months later as a natural gas-burning unit.[2][3]
In June 2015, PacifiCorp said Units 1 & 2 are scheduled for retirement by 2029.[4]
In 2018 it was unclear if unit 3 will be converted to natural gas or closed indefinitely.[5]
Unit 3 was shut down on January 31, 2019.[6]
An April 2019 study by PacifiCorp identified both units 1 & 2 as being less economic to operate beyond 2022 than alternatives. Both are candidates for early retirement.[7]
In September 2019 it was reported the entire power station will be closed by 2025.[8][9]
Coal Supply
The Kemmerer mine that supplies the coal to the Naugton Power plant was formerly owned by Westmoreland Coal. After if bankruptcy in 2019 it handed over the coal mine to its lenders becasue it could not find a buyer. The lenders will continue to operate the mine. [10] The Naughton plant is the sole buyer for Kemmerer mine's coal, if PacifiCorp decided to close the entire plant early the mine could also be closed in the process.
Emissions Data
- 2006 CO2 Emissions: 5,855,902 tons
- 2006 SO2 Emissions: 20,664 tons
- 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
- 2006 NOx Emissions: 14,168 tons
- 2005 Mercury Emissions: 30 lb.
Coal ash at Naughton
According to a 2007 risk assessment report released by the EPA, Wyoming has 17 coal ponds at 5 coal-fired power plant sites. Of these ponds, 11 are over 30 years in age and 4 are over 40 years old. Additionally, four surface impoundments and landfills were reported as being unlined, and two that were clay-lined.
The history of coal ash releases in Wyoming are as follow:
- 55,000 cubic yards of fly ash spilled from a pond at the Naughton Power Plant
- In January 2009, 14,400 gallons of coal ash processing water overflowed the canal at a coal ash pond at the Dave Johnston Power Plant
- Seepage occurred at the Bridger Power Station, where 10,000 gallons of coal ash was released per month, which was then pumped back into the pond[11]
Naughton ranked 58th on list of most polluting power plants in terms of coal waste
In January 2009, Sue Sturgis of the Institute of Southern Studies compiled a list of the 100 most polluting coal plants in the United States in terms of coal combustion waste (CCW) stored in surface impoundments like the one involved in the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill.[12] The data came from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 2006, the most recent year available.[13]
Naughton Power Plant ranked number 58 on the list, with 517,966 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.[12]
Citizen groups
- Powder River Basin Resource Council
- Sierra Club Wyoming Chapter
- Wyoming Conservation Voters
- Wyoming Conservation Voters Education Fund
- Wyoming Outdoor Council
Articles and Resources
Sources
- ↑ "EIA 923 april 2019" EIA 923 2019.
- ↑ "The big switch: utilities' conversion from coal to natural gas," Casper Star-Tribune, May 31, 2014
- ↑ "PacifiCorp Long Range Energy Plan Calls for Less Coal, More Energy Efficiency," PacifiCorp, June 8, 2015
- ↑ "PacifiCorp Long Range Energy Plan Calls for Less Coal, More Energy Efficiency," PacifiCorp, June 8, 2015
- ↑ "Tied to coal, Kemmerer’s future looks uncertain," WyoFile, May 8, 2018
- ↑ "Victim of times, Kemmerer coal-fired generator shuts down," Wyoming News Exchange, Jan 31, 2019
- ↑ "PacifiCorp updates economic analysis of coal fleet," PacifiCorp, April 25, 2019
- ↑ "Pacifcorp sees 2 GW coal retirements, $599M savings by 2040 in latest planning scenarios," Utility Dive, Sept. 11, 2019
- ↑ "PacifiCorp to add 7 GW renewables + storage, close 20 of 24 coal plants," Utility Dive, Oct 3, 2019
- ↑ https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/westmoreland-secured-lenders-take-over-kemmerer-mine#stream/
- ↑ "Wyoming Coal Ash Factsheet" Earthjustice, accessed November 16. 2011.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Sue Sturgis, "Coal's ticking timebomb: Could disaster strike a coal ash dump near you?," Institute for Southern Studies, January 4, 2009.
- ↑ TRI Explorer, EPA, accessed January 2009.
- 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
- Existing U.S. Coal Plants
- Wyoming and coal
- PacifiCorp
- MidAmerican Energy
- Berkshire Hathaway
- United States and coal
- Global warming
External Articles
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