Brunner Island Steam Electric Station

Brunner Island Steam Electric Station
Country United States
Location East Manchester Township, York County, near York Haven, Pennsylvania
Coordinates 40°05′44″N 76°41′49″W / 40.09556°N 76.69694°W / 40.09556; -76.69694Coordinates: 40°05′44″N 76°41′49″W / 40.09556°N 76.69694°W / 40.09556; -76.69694
Status Operational
Commission date Unit 1: June, 1961
Unit 2: October, 1965
Unit 3: June, 1969
Owner(s) Talen Energy
Thermal power station
Primary fuel Bituminous coal
Cooling source Susquehanna River
Cooling Tower (since 2009)
Power generation
Units operational 3
Nameplate capacity 1567 MWe

Brunner Island Steam Electric Station is a coal-fired electrical generation facility in York County, Pennsylvania. It occupies most of the area of the eponymous island on Susquehanna River. The power plant has three major units, which came online in 1961, 1965, and 1969, with respective generating capacities of 334 MW, 390 MW, and 759 MW (in winter conditions). In addition, three internal combustion generators (2.8 MWe each) were installed in 1967.[1]

Environmental impact

PPL, the owner of the plant, announced in 2005 that it would begin to install scrubbers at the plant and that installation would be complete by 2009. The scrubbers, PPL says, are intended to annually remove 100,000 tons of sulfur.[2] The facility was cited as one of several facilities in the region by a USA Today study of air quality around area schools as a potential source of significant pollutants.[3] Fly ash from the Brunner Island facility is approved for use in construction projects, especially for "use in concrete mixes to reduce alkali silica reactivity of aggregate." [4]

Sulphur dioxide emissions

In 2006, Brunner Island ranked 27th on the list of most-polluting major power station in the US in terms of sulphur dioxide gas emission rate: it discharged 20.49 pounds (9.29 kg) of SO2 for each MWh of electric power produced that year (93,545 tons of SO2 per year in total).[5] Scrubbers began operation in 2009, removing about 90-percent of sulfur dioxide emissions, and they reduce mercury emissions.[6][7] They spray a mixture of crushed limestone and water onto the exhaust gas before it goes out the plant's chimney. Sulfur reacts with the limestone and water in the plant's exhaust, forming synthetic gypsum. This is collected and shipped to a drywall manufacturing company.[8][9]

Waste heat

Brunner Island discharges all of its waste heat (about 1.44 times its electrical output) into its brand new cooling towers as of 2009.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2006" (Excel). Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy. 2006. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  2. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on April 3, 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-20. PPL Brunner Island – York Haven, PA.
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on March 8, 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-20. Crable, Ad. "EPA orders Pa. to test for toxic air near schools" March 4, 2009
  4. ↑ (staff) (2015-08-30). "Qualified Products List for Construction" (PDF). Retrieved 2017-04-24.
  5. ↑ "Dirty Kilowatts 2007 Report Database". Environmental Integrity Project. Retrieved May 2008. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  6. ↑ "Shaw Completes Air Quality Control Retrofit at Brunner Island Power Plant". www.businesswire.com. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
  7. ↑ "Scrubbing up nicely". www.powerengineeringint.com. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
  8. ↑ (Staff) (2008-08-14). "Brunner Island Power Plant" (PDF). U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
  9. ↑ "Scrubbing up nicely". www.powerengineeringint.com. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
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