Hatfield's Ferry Power Station was a 1.7-gigawatt (1,700 MW),

coal power plant A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a th ...

located in Greene County, Pennsylvania. The plant was operated by

FirstEnergy FirstEnergy Corp is an electric utility headquartered in Akron, Ohio. It was established when Ohio Edison acquired Centerior Energy in 1997. Its subsidiaries and affiliates are involved in the distribution, transmission, and generation of electri ...

. It began operations in 1969 and was shut down in 2013. The three Emission stacks were imploded March 4th, 2023 at 11:00 AM

History

Hatfield's Ferry's construction commenced in 1963 and began generation in 1969 under the operations of

Allegheny Energy Allegheny Energy was an electric utility headquartered in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. It owned and operated electric generation facilities and delivered electric services to customers in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, and Virginia. Allegh ...

. FirstEnergy assumed operations of Hatfield's Ferry following its merger with Allegheny Energy in 2010.

Environmental mitigation

In the mid-1990s, Allegheny Energy installed a control system which reduced the plant's

nitrogen oxide Nitrogen oxide may refer to a binary compound of oxygen and nitrogen, or a mixture of such compounds: Charge-neutral *Nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen(II) oxide, or nitrogen monoxide *Nitrogen dioxide (), nitrogen(IV) oxide * Nitrogen trioxide (), or n ...

() emissions. In 2001, Hatfield's Ferry added a

natural 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 ...

reburn system. In that same year, Allegheny Energy introduced a passive treatment system where groundwater from the fly ash landfill is treated with wetlands. Allegheny Energy commissioned a

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 ...

(FGD) system, designed by

Babcock & Wilcox Babcock & Wilcox is an American renewable, environmental and thermal energy technologies and service provider that is active and has operations in many international markets across the globe with its headquarters in Akron, Ohio, USA. Historicall ...

, to be installed at Hatfield's Ferry in 2006. The equipment, which cost $700 million to install, removed 95% of

sulfur dioxide Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English) is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a toxic gas responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is released naturally by volcanic activ ...

() and lowered

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 ...

emissions at the plant when it was activated in 2009.

Closure and future plans

On July 9, 2013, FirstEnergy announced they would be shutting down Hatfield's Ferry by October 9. The company decided against investing $245 million to retrofit Hatfield's Ferry in order to comply with the

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

's (EPA) Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS). In April 2017, FirstEnergy announced plans to sell part of the power plant site to APV Renaissance Partners Opco, a subsidiary of American Power Ventures LLC. In 2018 APV Renaissance received the final environmental permit required to break ground on a new 1,000-megawatt

natural gas power plant A gas-fired power plant or gas-fired power station or natural gas power plant is a thermal power station which burns natural gas to generate electricity. Natural gas power stations generate almost a quarter of world electricity and a signifi ...

on the site of the former coal pile. Completion of the project was expected by mid-2022. However, in June 2022 the

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the All ...

cast doubt on the planned project, reporting that "the plan ultimately fell through."

References

Energy infrastructure completed in 1969 FirstEnergy Former coal-fired power stations in the United States Buildings and structures in Greene County, Pennsylvania 1969 establishments in Pennsylvania 2013 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Former power stations in Pennsylvania {{US-powerstation-stub

History

Environmental mitigation

Closure and future plans

Further reading

See also

References