Coal Creek Station is the largest

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many pow ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

. Located near the Missouri River between

Underwood, North Dakota Underwood is a city in McLean County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 784 at the 2020 census. History Underwood was founded along a Soo Line Railroad line between Bismarck and Max in 1903 and named after Fred D. Underwood, vi ...

, and

Washburn, North Dakota Washburn is a city in southern McLean County, North Dakota, United States. Located along the upper Missouri River, it is the county seat of McLean County. The population was 1,300 at the 2020 census. Washburn was founded in 1882 near the forme ...

, it burns

lignite Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

. Its two generators are each rated at 605

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units, International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), ...

s (Unit 1 went in service in 1979, Unit 2 came online in 1980), with a peak total production of nearly 1.2

gigawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wat ...

s. Great River Energy had announced its intention to close the plant in 2022 if a new owner could not be found. On June 30, 2021, Great River Energy announced that they had reached an agreement to sell the plant to Rainbow Energy Center, LLC, who plans to continue to operate the plant. On May 2, 2022 the sale of Coal Creek Station and the high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system was completed. The boiler building of Coal Creek Station is 89.91 meters high. The chimney of Coal Creek Station is 198.12 metres tall. Coal Creek Station is the third-largest producer of

coal ash Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when de ...

in the country, generating over four million pounds of surface waste stored onsite each year.

Waste heat utilization

Coal Creek Station was the testing site for Great River Energy's Lignite Enhancement System. Their project, “DryFining,” created a new technology for coal-firing power plants that improves fuel quality, decreases volatile gas emissions, and reduces a plant’s operating expenses and maintenance costs. The Great River Energy team also included fluid bed dryer engineer Heyl & Patterson Inc. of

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, the U.S. Department of Energy’s

National Energy Technology Laboratory The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is a U.S national laboratory under the Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy. NETL focuses on applied research for the clean production and use of domestic energy resources. NETL performs ...

, Lehigh University’s Energy Research Center, the

Electric Power Research Institute EPRI, is an American independent, nonprofit organization that conducts research and development related to the generation, delivery, and use of electricity to help address challenges in the energy industry, including reliability, efficiency, affor ...

and engineering construction contractor

WorleyParsons WorleyParsons Limited, branded as Worley after completing the acquisition of Jacobs' Energy, Chemicals & Resources (ECR) division, is an American Australian engineering company which provides project delivery and consulting services to the ...

. The team was awarded with Power Engineering magazine’s 2010 Coal-Fired Project of the Year. Some of the

waste heat Waste heat is heat that is produced by a machine, or other process that uses energy, as a byproduct of doing work. All such processes give off some waste heat as a fundamental result of the laws of thermodynamics. Waste heat has lower utility ...

generated by the coal combustion is also utilized by the nearby

Blue Flint Ethanol Blue Flint Ethanol is a bioethanol producing company and a production plant with a same name, located in Underwood, North Dakota approximately north of Bismarck. The plant is unique in the fact that rather than burning fuels, such as coal or nat ...

plant.

References

External links

Rainbow EnergyGreat River Energy page
{{coord, 47, 22, 37, N, 101, 09, 26, W, display=title Energy infrastructure completed in 1979 Energy infrastructure completed in 1980 Coal-fired power stations in North Dakota Buildings and structures in McLean County, North Dakota