Coal-fired power plants are the largest source of mercury emissions in the United States as well as 40 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. While coal is used to generate about half the electricity consumed in the country, environmental groups are pushing utilities to invest in cleaner power sources like solar and wind and more energy-efficiency programs. Luminant anticipates the mine will produce roughly 9.5 million tons of lignite annually. With a peak total of 2,400 workers on site, Fluor completed the work with nearly 11 million safe man-hours on-site and with less than one-half a percent in change orders. Unit 1 is currently in commercial operation under Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) control. HOUSTON (Reuters) - Luminant, the largest electric generating company in Texas, said on Tuesday it has reached an agreement with environmental groups to avoid a lawsuit aimed at stopping construction of a new coal-fired power plant. Both units are equipped with SCR for additional NOx control, fabric filter baghouse for particulate control, wet flue gas desulfurization system for sulfur dioxide reduction and activated carbon sorbent injection for mercury control. With the latest technology in air quality control systems, Luminant expects the completed units to have lower emission rates than any other lignite-fired plant in the state and at least 70 percent lower than the national coal plant average. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. After re-certifying and re-analyzing 30-year-old steel and concrete designs, Fluor engineers brought the structures up to code and confirmed that the foundations met current-day requirements for static, vibration and dynamic analysis. Sierra Club can participate in the regulatory review at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. With day-to-day operations in Luminants control now, Watson said the plant is progressing well and has had very good run days. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Using digital bus communication technology not only led to advanced technology in data communication, but also to reductions in the amount of copper used for wiring. Reporting by Eileen OGrady; editing by Richard Chang. CO2 is blamed for global warming. Under the agreement with the Sierra Club and Public Citizen, Luminant agreed to further restrict emissions of mercury and other pollutants at the 1,600-megawatt Oak Grove power plant now under construction in Robertson County. Luminant owns and operates more than 18,000 MW of generating capacity in Texas. As part of an effort to gain approval to buy Luminants parent, TXU Corp, in 2007, an investment group agreed to scale back TXUs plan to build 11 coal-fired units to three, including Oak Grove. View Oil and Gas Articles on PennEnergy.com, Global demand boosts market for safety valves, Duke Energy faces pushback on its emission reduction plan, DOE launches $500 million effort to turn mines into clean energy hubs, Georgia Power launches coal ash use project at Plant Bowen, Holtec teases out possible sites for SMR and giga-manufacturing plant, SaskPower releases shortlist for natural gas turbine expansion project, Siemens Energy to list its cyber security tool with AWS Marketplace. Oak Grove was one of eight coal-fired power plants in six states that Sierra Club warned it might sue back in May because the group said the projects violated the Clean Air Act. Oak Groves first unit is expected to be online in late 2009.

That, in turn, led to labor savings, which was critical as many skilled laborers were drawn to the Gulf Coast for recovery work following hurricanes Katrina and Rita. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. In August, Sierra Club filed a suit to stop Houston-based Dynegy Inc and LS Power Group, from building the 900-MW Sandy Creek coal plant in McLennan County, Texas. One of the nations first 100 percent lignite-fired plants with selective catalytic reduction (SCR) for nitrogen oxide (NOx) reduction and activated carbon sorbent injection for mercury control is now being operated by Texas-based Luminant.

Unit 2 also had a GE single reheat steam turbine. As part of the plants NOx control, both original equipment steam generators were upgraded with low NOx burners and over-fire air. However, the two project sites were combined into a single project with some major equipment from each site composing the new two-unit configuration. And on Dec. 23, 2009, Fluor handed over care, custody and control to Luminant for Unit 1 followed by Unit 2 on June 2, 2010. Unit 1 contains an Alstom tangential-fired supercritical steam generator with a GE single reheat steam turbine. The second unit is a Babcock and Wilcox wall-fired supercritical steam generator. Luminant agreed to seek a new regulatory determination that the Oak Grove units will use maximum achievable control technology, or MACT, to control certain emissions, including mercury, it said in a release. The threatened suits followed a February ruling by a federal appeals court that said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency violated the Clean Air Act in not setting mandatory cuts for mercury emissions of power plants. To cool the plant, Oak Grove uses a reservoir (that also dates from the 1970s) and once-through cooling technology. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. Over the years the two projects faced setbacks due to a reduction in load demands and TXU scaled back construction on both sites, even though some large components had already been purchased. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. The plant burns lignite, which is bountiful in Texas.

Fluor, the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company at Oak Grove, completed the lignite coal-fired plant in 35 months.

Unit 2 is still going through the final on-line testing phase, which when completed, will make the unit available for reliability dispatch. This agreement gives us greater legal and regulatory certainty as we complete the Oak Grove generating station, Bill Moore, general counsel of Dallas-based Luminant, said in a release. We have the proven technology that lignite coal can be burned cleanly, said Cliff Watson, Oak Groves generation director.

The plant has a significant amount of digital bus controls used where previously plant communications would have primarily been hard-wired signals, said James Brown, director of engineering for Fluor Power. TXUs new owner, Energy Future Holdings Corp, also agreed to invest $1 billion to increase emission controls at Luminants new coal plants and at 5,800 MW of existing coal generation. Technology advancements, code changes, more stringent emissions requirements and different suppliers for some of the major equipment; it was quite a task to meet all the elements of this unique and challenging project, said Jim Mackey, vice president of Solid Fuels for Fluor. The two Oak Grove units use different steam generator boiler technologies, not surprising since this equipment for each unit was originally purchased decades ago for two separate projects. Working 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, the mines 300 employees help move 30,000 tons of lignite per day by train to the Oak Grove plant. As a result, when Luminant and Fluor re-initiated work in 2007 after receiving new air permits from the state of Texas, they had a running start. In addition to advancing the equipment controls, the plant-wide control system architecture also incorporates some of the most advanced broad use of digital control communications. Adding to the difficulty, engineers had to work within the site boundary laid out in the 1970s. The main steam conditions on the 2800 MW net lignite-fired units are 3,500 psig with 1,000 F on the main steam and 1,000 F on the reheat. The agreement does not spell out final emission limits for Oak Grove, but does require Luminant to comply with the law, said Sanjay Narayan, a Sierra Club attorney. The current Oak Grove site was planned as a two-unit site and the other project location as a one-unit site. Design for the boiler buildings and steam turbine table top foundations were completed and steel was partially erected on Unit 1. Oak Groves lignite comes from the neighboring Luminant-owned Kosse Mine. And in some cases, equipment purchased for the earlier plants had to be upgraded. The Oak Grove Power plant, some 100 miles northwest of Houston, includes two supercritical lignite-fueled power generation units that deliver 1,600 MW. One example was upgrading the controls on the General Electric steam turbine three generations from Mark II to Mark VI technology. The Texas grid agency is counting on new coal plants coming online in the next two summers to bolster generation and avoid possible blackouts. But the Oak Grove story begins in the late 1970s when Luminant (then known as TXU) had plans for two separate power generation facilities.