The Monroe Power Plant is a

coal-fired 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

Monroe, Michigan Monroe is the largest city and county seat of Monroe County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Monroe had a population of 20,462 in the 2020 census. The city is bordered on the south by Monroe Charter Township, but the two are administered autonomo ...

, on the western shore of

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

. It is owned by the

DTE Energy Electric Company DTE Electric Company (formerly The Detroit Edison Company) was founded in 1886. DTE Electric's power generation portfolio includes renewable energy, but is primarily generated by fossil fuels. In 2021, 67.32% of electricity generated by DTE came ...

, a subsidiary of

DTE Energy DTE Energy (formerly Detroit Edison until 1996) is a Detroit-based diversified energy company involved in the development and management of energy-related businesses and services in the United States and Canada. Its operating units include an elec ...

. The plant was constructed in the early 1970s and began operating in 1971. The plant has 4 generating units, each with an output of 850 megawatts. With all four generating units operating, the plant's total output is 3,300 megawatts (3,400 MW total, with 100 MW required for the plant machinery to run). This makes it the eleventh largest electric plant in the United States. The Monroe Power Plant connects to the power grid by numerous 120,000- and 345,000-volt

transmission line In electrical engineering, a transmission line is a specialized cable or other structure designed to conduct electromagnetic waves in a contained manner. The term applies when the conductors are long enough that the wave nature of the transmis ...

s, owned and maintained by

ITC Transmission ITC Transmission was founded in 1999 as International Transmission Co., a subsidiary of Detroit Edison (since renamed DTE Energy Electric Company, itself a subsidiary of DTE Energy), charged in the ownership, operation and maintenance of Detroit ...

. Two of the 345 kV lines going out of the plant interconnect with FirstEnergy in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

(Bayshore-Monroe line and the Majestic-Monroe-Allen Junction Line). The plant is scheduled to close in 2028.

Flue gas treatment

The Monroe Power Plant did significant upgrades and maintenance at the facility in late 2007 and 2008.

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) units, or sulfur-oxide "scrubbers", are in operation on all four of Monroe's generating units. These devices reduce over 95% of the

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.

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 reduce the amount of by combining with the over an SCR catalyst to reduce 90% of the to water and nitrogen. Currently all of the generating units use SCRs.

References

{{Monroe, Michigan Energy infrastructure completed in 1974 Monroe, Michigan Coal-fired power stations in Michigan DTE Energy Buildings and structures in Monroe County, Michigan

Flue gas treatment

See also

References