Kyger Creek Power Plant is a 1.08-gigawatt, 1,086 ( MW) coal-fired

power station 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 p ...

located south of

Cheshire, Ohio Cheshire is a village in Gallia County, Ohio, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 132 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Point Pleasant, WV–OH Micropolitan Statistical Area. History Cheshire, Ohio, was named for ...

Gallia County, Ohio Gallia County (pronunciation: ''GAL-yuh'') is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 29,220. Its county seat is Gallipolis. Named after the French people who originally settled there, its name “ ...

. It is operated by the

Ohio Valley Electric Corporation The Ohio Valley Electric Corporation (OVEC) is a company jointly owned by several parent electrical utilities. It is headquartered in Piketon, Ohio. OVEC and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Indiana-Kentucky Electrical Corporation (IKEC), own and operat ...

(OVEC).

History

The Kyger Creek was launched into service in 1955. The plant with its five units supplied electricity for the

Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant is a facility located in Scioto Township, Pike County, Ohio, just south of Piketon, Ohio, that previously produced enriched uranium, including highly enriched weapons-grade uranium, for the United States At ...

Piketon, Ohio Piketon is a village in Pike County in the U.S. state of Ohio, along the Scioto River. The village is best known for the uranium enrichment plant located there, which is one of only three such plants in the United States. The population was 2,11 ...

along with its sister plant, Clifty Creek Power Plant in

Madison, Indiana Madison is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Indiana, United States, along the Ohio River. As of the 2010 United States Census its population was 11,967. Over 55,000 people live within of downtown Madison. Madison is the larges ...

. The plant supplied electricity Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant and sold any excess to the markets. In 2003, the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...

(DOE) terminated the contract, making Kyger Creek to rely solely on the markets. The Kyger Creek is located downstream along the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

from a much larger, newer coal-fired

Gavin Power Plant General James M. Gavin Power Plant is a 2,600-megawatt supercritical coal-fired power station in the village of Cheshire, Ohio, United States. It is owned by Lightstone Generation LLC, a 50–50 joint venture of The Blackstone Group L.P. an ...

. In July 2019, the State of Ohio signed into law a bill mandating

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 ...

customers to subsidize Kyger Creek and Clifty Creek.

American Electric Power American Electric Power (AEP), (railcar reporting mark: AEPX) is a major investor-owned electric utility in the United States, delivering electricity to more than five million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation's largest gen ...

(AEP),

Duke Energy Duke Energy Corporation is an American electric power and natural gas holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Overview Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Duke Energy owns 58,200 megawatts of base-load and peak generation in ...

, and

Dayton Power & Light DP&L Inc. is a subsidiary of AES Corporation. Through its subsidiaries The Dayton Power and Light Company and DPL Energy Resources, DP&L sells to, and generates electricity for, a customer base of over 500,000 people within a area of West Central ...

(DP&L) customers already subsidize these plants based on power usage. However, the bill for FirstEnergy customers to subsidize Kyger Creek was a part of a public corruption scheme revealed by the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

(DOJ) in July 2020.

Environmental mitigation

When Kyger Creek was first constructed, three smokestacks were constructed to disperse emissions; mitigating the nearby area from soot and foul gases. With amendments added to the Clean Air Act in 1970, regulators pressed Kyger Creek in modernizing their outdated smokestacks. A smokestack, one of the tallest chimneys in the world was built in the mid-1970s. Pollution control systems were installed at Kyger Creek in 2001 to reduce

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 by 80%. The implementation of two jet bubbling reactor

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) systems in 2011 reduced 98% 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 ...

() emissions at Kyger Creek.

References

External links

OVEC Kyger Creek PageChimney Diagram
{{Supertall chimneys Energy infrastructure completed in 1955 Towers completed in 1980 Towers in Ohio Coal-fired power stations in Ohio Buildings and structures in Gallia County, Ohio Chimneys in the United States 1955 establishments in Ohio

History

Environmental mitigation

See also

References

External links