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Edgewater Generating Station is a 380 megawatt ( MW) coal power plant located on the south side of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, on the shore of
In 1952 one of the units was upgraded with a Babcock & Wilcox cyclone boiler. At the time, the facility was using a 50/50 mix of Illinois and West Virginia coal. The West Virginia coal was shipped via lake freighter from
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...
, whose waters are used to provide cooling. It provides electricity for customers in the northeastern part of Alliant Energy's Wisconsin Power & Light service area and service to several local municipal utilities. In 2009, it was the seventh largest generating station in Wisconsin, with a net summer capacity of 767 MW.
Units
In 1952 one of the units was upgraded with a Babcock & Wilcox cyclone boiler. At the time, the facility was using a 50/50 mix of Illinois and West Virginia coal. The West Virginia coal was shipped via lake freighter from Lorain, Ohio
Lorain () is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Black River, about 30 miles west of Cleveland. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 65 ...
.
At present, coal is delivered to the plant entirely by railroad, originating primarily from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming, via a Union Pacific spur line that was originally the main line of the Milwaukee Northern interurban railway.
Unit 3 and 4 share the same chimney
A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typic ...
.
Unit 3 turbine and generator were manufactured by Allis-Chalmers. Unit 4 was manufactured by General Electric, with an Alterrex excitation system. Unit 5 was also manufactured by General Electric, with a Generrex excitation system.
Retirement and decommissioning
Unit 3 was retired at the end of 2015 due to its age and efficiency. Unit 4 was retired in 2018 as Alliant Energy worked to reduce 80 percent of carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. Unit 4's electricity generation would be replaced by Riverside Energy Center in the Town of Beloit, which usesnatural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
.
On May 22, 2020, Alliant Energy announced that the plant would be decommissioned by the end of 2022, and the property would be redeveloped for another use; Unit 5's generating capacity has also been replaced by a further expansion of Riverside. On June 23, 2022, Alliant announced that Edgewater's decommissioning date would be delayed until June 2025, due to the ongoing supply chain issues and to hedge against an energy shortage in upcoming years, with Edgewater mainly being in service during peak periods.
See also
* Alliant Energy *List of power stations in Wisconsin
This is a list of electricity-generating power stations in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, sorted by type and name. In 2019, Wisconsin had a total summer capacity of 15,312 MW through all of its power plants, and a net generation of 66,774&nbs ...
References
{{reflist Energy infrastructure completed in 1931 Energy infrastructure completed in 1941 Energy infrastructure completed in 1951 Energy infrastructure completed in 1969 Energy infrastructure completed in 1985 Buildings and structures in Sheboygan, Wisconsin Coal-fired power stations in Wisconsin Alliant Energy