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Oak Grove Power Plant

Oak Grove Power Plant is a 1.79-gigawatt (1,796 MW),[1] coal power plant located north of Franklin, Texas in Robertson County, Texas. The plant is operated by Vistra Energy. It began operations in 2010.

History

Plans for Oak Grove began in the 1970s as Texas Power & Light (a forerunner of Luminant) and Alcoa made an agreement to jointly operate a power plant named Twin Oak Steam Electric Station in Robertson County. The plan was to construct two, 750 MW units to burn lignite and be ready for commercial generation by 1981. The electricity generated would run to Alcoa's aluminium smelting facility in Palestine, Texas.[2] Twin Oaks Reservoir was developed by impounding Duck Creek in 1982 to act as a cooling source for the plant.[3] In 1983, Alcoa attempted to sell its stake in Twin Oak to Halliburton who was seeking electricity to offer to the owners of the troubled South Texas Nuclear Generating Station.[4] Ultimately, Alcoa sold its stake back to Texas Utilities in 1984. As electricity demand in Texas stagnated, construction on Twin Oak continued to be deferred until the air permit was withdrawn in 1994.[5]

The plant was renamed from Twin Oak to Oak Grove when construction restarted in 2007 by Luminant.[5][6] Construction resumed in order to meet future electricity demand and following the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) granting Luminant a new air permit for Oak Grove.[7] The plant was reconfigured and redesigned to meet current emissions requirements. This included the addition of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions and activated carbon which prevents mercury from being released.[6] After Fluor completed the necessary construction work, Unit 1 came online in December 2009 and Unit 2 came online in June 2010.[8][9] Oak Grove utilizes lignite extracted from the nearby Kosse Mine.[5]

See also

  • List of power stations in Texas
  • List of largest power stations in the United States

External links

References

  1. Form EIA-860 detailed data with previous form data (EIA-860A/860B) EIA.gov, September 13, 2018, retrieved April 22, 2019^
  2. TP&L plans generating station McKinney Daily Courier Gazette, January 30, 1975, retrieved February 17, 2018^
  3. Twin Oaks Reservoir Texas State Historical Association, retrieved February 19, 2018^
  4. Halliburton Deal For Power Plant The New York Times, March 24, 1983, retrieved February 17, 2018^
  5. Robert Peltier. Luminant’s Oak Grove Power Plant Earns POWER’s Highest Honor Power, August 1, 2010, retrieved February 19, 2018^
  6. Brian Wheeler. Oak Grove: That '70s Plant Power Engineering, September 1, 2010, retrieved February 19, 2018^
  7. Margaret Allen. TXU's Oak Grove plant gets state's OK Dallas Business Journal, June 14, 2007, retrieved February 19, 2018^
  8. Luminant Puts Oak Grove Coal Plant Unit Online in Texas Power, December 30, 2009, retrieved February 19, 2018^
  9. Luminant Tex Oak Grove 2 coal unit enters service Reuters, June 3, 2010, retrieved February 19, 2018^