The W.A. Parish Generating Station is a 3.65-gigawatt (3,653 MW), dual-fired power plant located near Thompsons, Texas. The station occupies a 4,664-acre site near Smithers Lake southwest of Houston in Fort Bend County and consists of two four-unit plants; one natural gas and the other coal (2,697 MW).[1] With a total installed capacity of 3,653 MW, it is the second largest conventional power station in the US, and supplies about fifteen percent of the energy in the Houston area.[2][3] NRG Energy owns and operates the plant.[1]
| W.A. Parish Generating Station | |
|---|---|
 W.A. Parish, seen from northwest of the facility | |
 | |
| Country | United States |
| Location | Thompsons, Texas |
| Coordinates | 29°28′34″N 95°38′0″W / 29.47611°N 95.63333°W |
| Status | Operational |
| Owner | NRG Energy |
| Thermal power station | |
| Primary fuel | Coal |
| Secondary fuel | Natural gas |
| Cooling source | Smithers Lake |
| Power generation | |
| Nameplate capacity | 3,653 MW |
| External links | |
| Commons | Related media on Commons |
The Powder River Basin supplies three 115-car trainloads worth of low-sulfur coal to units 5-8 or 36,000 tons daily.[4][5]
Completed in January 2017, the post-combustion[6] Petra Nova Carbon Capture Project became largest installed on an existing power plant in the world.[7][8] The system pumped 1.6 million tons of filtered carbon dioxide (CO2) from unit 8 to the West Ranch Oil Field 82 miles away in Jackson County.[9][10] Since the system is powered by natural gas, it was originally expected to have a net effect of not releasing 785,000 tons of carbon annually.[11] The system cost approximately $1 billion,[12] but was idled from May 2020 to September 2023 due to the low price of oil during the COVID-19 pandemic.[13][14]
Adjacent to Parish Station is the natural gas Brazos Valley Power Plant owned by Calpine Energy which opened in 2003.[15]
Notable Incidents
editDuring the 2021 Texas power crisis, Parish Station was reported to have experienced up to a 664 MW loss in generation capacity, including an 80 MW decrease in capacity early in the crisis that contributed to the need for rolling blackouts.[16]
The Unit 8 turbine, which has a generating capacity of 610 MW, caught fire the night of May 8, 2022. While there were no injuries reported during the fire,[17] a chemical exposure incident during the repairs briefly hospitalized six workers.[18] The turbine was heavily damaged and remained offline as of August 2023.[19] Unit 8 was originally expected to be repaired by May 7, 2023.[20]
See also
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References
edit- ^ a b "Texas Sets Record for Gas Power Burn, Still Barely Enough". Power Magazine. August 18, 2015.
- ^ "S&P Global : Platts : W.A. Parish Electric Generation Station, Thompson, Texas". Online.platts.com. Archived from the original on October 14, 2016. Retrieved April 3, 2017.
- ^ "Coal unit catches fire at NRG's W.A. Parish Generating Station in Fort Bend County". ABC13 Houston. May 9, 2022. Retrieved September 17, 2022.
- ^ "CenterPoint execs field questions about Sugar Land's Parish plant". Bizjournals.com. Retrieved April 3, 2017.
- ^ "How the Biggest Power Plant in Texas Will Use Pollution to Pump Oil | StateImpact Texas". Stateimpact.npr.org. February 21, 2012. Retrieved April 3, 2017.
- ^ "Carbon Capture Suffers a Huge Setback as Kemper Plant Suspends Work". June 29, 2017. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
- ^ "World's Largest Carbon-Capture Plant to Open Soon". Scientific American. October 4, 2016. Retrieved April 3, 2017.
- ^ "Petra Nova Project| NRG Energy". Nrg.com. Retrieved April 3, 2017.
- ^ Kirk, Bryan (September 2, 2014). "Parish Power Plant takes steps to clean up its operations in Fort Bend Count". Chron.com. Retrieved April 3, 2017.
- ^ "Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies @ MIT". Sequestration.mit.edu. Retrieved September 17, 2022.
- ^ Wang, Ucilia (July 15, 2014). "NRG's $1B Bet To Show How Carbon Capture Could Be Feasible For Coal Power Plants". Forbes.
- ^ Ryan Maye Handy (January 10, 2017). "NRG begins commercial operations of $1 billion carbon capture system". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
- ^ "Problems plagued U.S. CO2 capture project before shutdown: document". Reuters. August 6, 2020. Retrieved September 17, 2022.
- ^ Patel, Sonal (September 13, 2023). "Petra Nova, Pioneering Power Plant Carbon Capture Unit, Is Up and Running Again, says JX Nippon". POWER Magazine. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
- ^ Seshadri Kumar (April 5, 2004). "Brazos Valley power plant turns on lights". Chron.com. Retrieved April 3, 2017.
- ^ Patel, Sonal (March 4, 2021). "ERCOT Lists Generators Forced Offline During Texas Extreme Cold Event". POWER Magazine. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
- ^ STAFF, HERALD. "Investigators seek answers to NRG energy plant blaze". Fort Bend Herald. Retrieved September 17, 2022.
- ^ Zuvanich, Adam (September 30, 2022). "Chemical exposure at Houston-area power plant sends six workers to hospital – Houston Public Media". www.houstonpublicmedia.org. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
- ^ Gardner, Timothy (August 2, 2023). "Restart delayed at Texas coal unit linked to Petra Nova CCS project". Reuters. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
- ^ Mathews, Chris (August 4, 2022). "NRG: Fire at Fort Bend County power plant could keep coal unit offline until Q2 2023". Houston Business Journal. Retrieved September 17, 2022.
External links
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