Plant X is a steam-electric power plant located in the partially vegetated

sandhill A sandhill is a type of ecological community or xeric wildfire-maintained ecosystem. It is not the same as a sand dune. It features very short fire return intervals, one to five years. Without fire, sandhills undergo ecological succession and bec ...

s south of the

West Texas West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the arid and semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Abilene, and Del Rio. No consensus exists on the boundary betwee ...

town of

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

Lamb County, Texas Lamb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 13,045. Its county seat is Littlefield. The county was created in 1876, but not organized until 1908. It is named for George A. Lamb, who di ...

. It is owned and operated by Southwestern Public Service Company, a subsidiary of

Xcel Energy Xcel Energy Inc. is an American utility holding company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, serving more than 3.7 million electric customers and 2.1 million natural gas customers in Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico in 2019. It consists of four ope ...

History

At the time Plant X was being designed, power plants were usually named after their location. During the initial stages of the design process, no location had been selected, so engineers referred to the generating station simply as “Plant X” and the name stuck. When the President of Southwestern Public Service Company announced that the company planned to build a new power plant on the

high plains High Plains refers to one of two distinct land regions: * High Plains (United States), land region of the western Great Plains *High Plains (Australia) The High Plains of south-eastern Australia are a sub-region, or more strictly a string of adja ...

of the Llano Estacado, William L. Broadhurst of the Division of Ground Water of the

Geological Survey A geological survey is the systematic investigation of the geology beneath a given piece of ground for the purpose of creating a geological map or model. Geological surveying employs techniques from the traditional walk-over survey, studying outc ...

recommended that they build it in the Sand Hills area of Lamb County.McCain, C. 2008. W.L. Broadhurst, first High Plains Water District hydrologist, dies at 103. The Cross Section 54(11):2. The

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

groundwater program had already determined that there was an unusually large saturated thickness of freshwater in the

Ogallala Aquifer The Ogallala Aquifer () is a shallow water table aquifer surrounded by sand, silt, clay, and gravel located beneath the Great Plains in the United States. One of the world's largest aquifers, it underlies an area of approximately in porti ...

beneath the Sand Hills. As a result, Plant X was located where Broadhurst suggested. Plant X is primarily powered by

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 ...

, although fuel oil can be used as an alternative. It has four operating units: Unit 1 was brought on-line in 1952 and is capable of producing 48 MW; Unit 2 was added in 1953 and has a production capability of 102 MW; Unit 3 was constructed in 1955 and is rated at 103 MW, and Unit 4 is a 189 MW unit, added in 1964. The total power production capability of Plant X is 442 MW.

Water use

With regard to water-use efficiency, Plant X was designed to be a "zero-discharge facility," which means no process waters are directly discharged from the plant site. Operating in a semiarid region with a limited water supply, engineers developed a recycling system to reduce water use at Plant X. A pipeline was constructed to send Plant X blowdown water (used water from plant operations) for treatment and recycling at the nearby Tolk Station, a coal-fired power plant located to the west. As a result, the combined water consumption of Plant X and Tolk Station was reduced by about 180 million gallons per year. Nevertheless, Plant X still "consumes huge quantities of groundwater."Brune, G.M. 1981. Springs of Texas. Fort Worth, TX: Branch-Smith, p. 284. The generation of steam, the discharge of steam to the atmosphere, and the evaporation of water from massive cooling towers results in a significant extraction of groundwater from the

. The combination of groundwater pumping for power production and water extraction by irrigated agriculture has caused groundwater levels beneath the Sand Hills to drop appreciably. As a result, most natural springs in the area have stopped flowing and spring-fed lakes, such as Spring Lake and Soda Lake, have dried completely.

References

External links

* * *{{url, https://www.ars.usda.gov/plains-area/lubbock-tx/cropping-systems-research-laboratory/wind-erosion-and-water-conservation-research/docs/llano/, Public domain images of the Llano Estacado and West Texas Energy infrastructure completed in 1952 Energy infrastructure completed in 1953 Energy infrastructure completed in 1955 Energy infrastructure completed in 1964 Buildings and structures in Lamb County, Texas Natural gas-fired power stations in Texas Xcel Energy 1952 establishments in Texas

History

Water use

See also

References

External links