Martin Lake Power Plant is a 2,250-

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), ...

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 southwest of Tatum,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, in Rusk County, Texas. The plant is owned by

Luminant Luminant is a Texas-based electric utility. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings Corporation. Luminant's operations include electricity generation and wholesaling, mining, construction, and development. The company has capac ...

. It began operations in 1977. The plant is also served by the Luminant owned Martin Lake Line, shuttling coal from nearby as well as the

Powder River Basin The Powder River Basin is a geologic structural basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, about east to west and north to south, known for its extensive coal reserves. The former hunting grounds of the Oglala Lakota, the area is very s ...

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

via

BNSF BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

History

The plant consists of three units. Unit 1 was commissioned in 1977, Unit 2 in 1978, and Unit 3 in 1979. All three, when first activated, had a capacity of 750 MW. Plans for a fourth, 858 MW coal unit at Martin Lake was formally cancelled in 1986. A man-made lake was created for the plant's cooling source. Martin Lake was retrofitted with

selective catalytic reduction Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is a means of converting nitrogen oxides, also referred to as with the aid of a catalyst into diatomic nitrogen (), and water (). A reductant, typically anhydrous ammonia (), aqueous ammonia (), or a urea () s ...

(SCR) systems by Fluor in 2008 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. Martin Lake receives its energy from nearby

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 ...

mines and coal from the

in Wyoming. Martin Lake used to receive lignite from Oak Hill Mine in nearby Rusk and Panola Counties until its closure in December 2016. One of Martin Lake's units was idled in September 2013 due to low electricity prices. The unit was restarted in March 2014 as electricity prices rose during the 2014 North American cold wave.

Incidents

In February 2017, a contractor died in an accident at the site.

References

External links

Luminant page for Martin Lake Power Plant
Energy infrastructure completed in 1977 Energy infrastructure completed in 1978 Energy infrastructure completed in 1979 Coal-fired power stations in Texas Buildings and structures in Rusk County, Texas Vistra Corp {{US-powerstation-stub

History

Incidents

See also

References

External links