The Conemaugh Generating Station is a 1,872 MW

baseload The base load (also baseload) is the minimum level of demand on an electrical grid over a span of time, for example, one week. This demand can be met by unvarying power plants, dispatchable generation, or by a collection of smaller intermittent e ...

coal 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 dea ...

-powered plant located on , across the

Conemaugh River The Conemaugh River is a long tributary of the Kiskiminetas River in Westmoreland, Indiana, and Cambria counties in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The name means 'Otter Creek', originating from the Unami-Lenape language word ''kwənəmuxkw' ...

from New Florence in Western

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Track 3 of the Norfolk Southern Pittsburgh line runs next to the power plant. The power plant will close by or before December 31, 2028, as a result of a new federal wastewater rule that prohibits coal power plants from dumping toxic elements such as

mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but ...

, and selenium into streams and rivers, along with the

Keystone Generating Station The Keystone Generating Station is a 1.71-gigawatt (1,711 MW), coal power plant located on roughly in Plumcreek Township, southeastern Armstrong County, Pennsylvania near Crooked Creek, just west of Shelocta, Pennsylvania. The plant was built i ...

and at least 24 other power plants in 14 states.

Facility

The station generates enough electricity to light 17 million 100-watt bulbs. The facility consists of two

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...

s, which began commercial operation in 1970 and 1971, and two

cooling tower A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat and ...

s. The main turbines run on

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

produced by twin year-around 850

MWe 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 Watt ...

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...

s, each as tall as a 14-story building. The plant uses more than 4 million tons of coal each year. Conemaugh has two hyperbolic natural draft cooling towers which provide recirculating water to cool and condense the steam and to limit the amount of water needed from the river. The plant is one of several in the area, situated near Pennsylvania deep mines and is basically a twin of the

, partially owned by PSEG Power.

Controlling emissions

To control

air pollution Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...

emissions, the plant is equipped with electrostatic precipitators and low-NOx burners. A wet

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

flue-gas desulfurization Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) is a set of technologies used to remove sulfur dioxide () from exhaust flue gases of fossil-fuel power plants, and from the emissions of other sulfur oxide emitting processes such as waste incineration. Methods ...

system was installed in the mid 1990s. The plant donated a particularly scenic portion of the site, known locally as Buttermilk Falls, to Indiana County for use as a wildlife refuge.

Company

The plant employs about 200 people and is one of the largest employers in

Indiana County Indiana County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the west central part of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 83,246. Its county seat is Indiana. Indiana County comprises the Indiana, PA Mi ...

. It is a subsidiary of GenOn Energy Inc.

Water pollution

In March 2011, PennEnvironment and the Sierra Club won a favorable court ruling finding that the plant had committed 8,684 violations of the

Clean Water Act The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the responsibiliti ...

by discharging wastewater directly into the Conemaugh River. On June 6, 2011 GenOn agreed to a $5 million settlement with $3.75 million going toward the restoration of the river.

References

External links