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Big Brown Power Plant

Big Brown Power Plant was a 1.15-gigawatt (1,150 MW) coal power plant located northeast of Fairfield near Fairfield Lake State Park in Freestone County, Texas. It was operated by Vistra Corp's subsidiary, Luminant. The plant operated from 1971 to 2018.

History

Big Brown was constructed by Texas Utilities (now known as Luminant) and went into operation in 1971.[2] It has two units.[3] Big Brown Creek was impounded to form the plant's cooling source. The dam was completed in 1969 creating Fairfield Lake.[4] The power plant used lignite from the nearby Turlington Mine and later supplemented with coal from Peabody Energy's Rawhide Mine in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming.[3][5] To improve the overall fuel mix and to reduce reliance on the nearby Turlington Mine whose lignite production was decreasing, coal from the Powder River Basin was blended into the fuel beginning in 2000.[6] LO-NOx burners were installed in both boilers in 2001 to curtail nitrogen oxide emissions.[6] emissions were reduced again in 2008 with selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) systems being retrofitted by Fluor to Big Brown's units.[7][8] The plant was temporarily idled in 2011 in order to overhaul its boilers.[9] This was to fulfill the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Cross-State Air Pollution Rule to reduce its sulfur dioxide emissions.[9] With the plant idling, Luminant halted lignite extraction at the nearby Turlington Mine until the plant resumed electricity generation.[10] Claiming lignite reserves were nearly exhausted at Turlington Mine, Luminant made plans in 2014 to close the mine by 2018 and rely solely on coal from the Powder River Basin.[11]

Closure

It was announced on October 13, 2017 that Luminant was to either shut down or sell to another concern Big Brown in early-2018 due to economic factors such as low natural gas prices and growth in renewable energy.[12] The following month, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) approved of the shut down.[13] ERCOT found the two-unit Big Brown plant was "not required to support ERCOT transmission system reliability", and authorized its closure by February 12, 2018.[14]

See also

  • List of power stations in Texas

External links

References

  1. Heather Richards. Wyoming coal customer closes in Texas as planned Casper Star-Tribune Online, February 12, 2018, retrieved February 14, 2018^
  2. S.G. Gwynne. Coal Hard Facts Texas Monthly, January 2007, retrieved October 15, 2017^
  3. Big Brown Power Plant Luminant, retrieved October 15, 2017^
  4. Fairfield Lake (Trinity River Basin) Texas Water Development Board, retrieved February 14, 2018^
  5. Emma Ockerman, Tim Loh. America's Miners Are Digging for Hotter Coals as Old Plants Shut Bloomberg Markets, October 17, 2017, retrieved November 3, 2017^
  6. Robert Peltier. Luminant's Big Brown Plant wins for continuous improvement and safety programs Power Magazine, July 15, 2008, retrieved October 15, 2017^
  7. Paul Nastu. Luminant Details Emissions Reduction Plan Environmental Leader, February 19, 2008, retrieved February 15, 2018^
  8. Fluor to provide air quality upgrades Power Engineering, April 17, 2008, retrieved February 15, 2018^
  9. Gabriel Nelson. Texas Utility to Idle Boilers, Coal Mines in Response to New EPA Rule E&E Publishing, September 12, 2011, retrieved October 15, 2017^
  10. J.B. Smith. Freestone coal mine to close, costing about 200 jobs Waco Tribune-Herald, September 13, 2011, retrieved October 22, 2017^
  11. James Osborne. East Texas coal mine closing The Dallas Morning News, August 29, 2014, retrieved October 23, 2017^
  12. Allan Koenig. Luminant to Close Two Texas Power Plants Luminant, October 13, 2017, retrieved October 15, 2017^
  13. Ryan Maye Handy. Layoffs on way as grid operator approves coal plant closures Houston Chronicle, November 20, 2017, retrieved November 21, 2017^
  14. Jeff Zhou. ERCOT OKs Vistra's plan to retire 2,400 MW coal capacity in Texas Platts, November 6, 2017, retrieved December 20, 2017^