Buck Steam Station

Last updated
Buck Steam Station
Buck Steam Station
Country United States of America
Location Salisbury Township, Rowan County, near Salisbury, North Carolina
Coordinates 35°42′43″N80°22′37″W / 35.71194°N 80.37694°W / 35.71194; -80.37694 Coordinates: 35°42′43″N80°22′37″W / 35.71194°N 80.37694°W / 35.71194; -80.37694
Commission date 1926
Owner(s) Duke Energy
Thermal power station
Primary fuel Coal,
Natural Gas
Turbine technologySteam,
gas turbine
Cooling source Yadkin River
Combined cycle?Planned
Power generation
Units operational4
Units planned2
Nameplate capacity 369 MW,
620 MW planned

The Buck Steam Station is a 369-MW formerly coal-fired electrical power plant, owned by Duke Energy. There are also three natural gas-fueled combustion turbines at the location that provide an additional 93 MW (and which began operation in 1970), and two natural gas-fueled combined cycle turbines are planned for the near future. [1] Remaining coal-fired units (IDs 5-9) were decommissioned in mid-2011 and April 2013, with only natural gas units (11C and 12C) remaining.

Contents

History

Steam plant

The Buck Steam Station was built in 1926. It is named after a co-founder of Duke Energy, James Buchanan "Buck" Duke. The plant was originally three units, but a fourth was added when the company bought up an order cancelled by the Pentagon. [1]

Dukeville, North Carolina was built as a mill village along the banks of the Yadkin River in 1926 to house plant employees of the Buck Steam Station. [2] In 2014, Dukeville residents were told that "coal ash pits near their homes could be leaching dangerous materials into groundwater." [3]

Addition of combined cycle turbines

In 2007, Duke Energy began to pursue permission to add two new combined cycle, natural gas-fired, 620 MW generating units to its fleet: one at the Dan River Steam Station in Rockingham County, the other at the Buck Steam Station. This was done in order to diversify the company's fuel sources, expand its generating capacity, and to modernize its energy generation by moving away from less efficient, more polluting coal. When the two turbines were added, two of the four older coal units were to go offline. [4]

Demolition

Part of the plant was imploded in August 2018, and another section came down October 19, 2018. [5] The decommissioning was the subject of an episode of the Smithsonian Channel's "Inside Mighty Machines". [6] [7] [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Power station</span> Facility generating electric power

A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Combined cycle power plant</span> Assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat

A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant. The same principle is also used for marine propulsion, where it is called a combined gas and steam (COGAS) plant. Combining two or more thermodynamic cycles improves overall efficiency, which reduces fuel costs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fossil fuel power station</span> Facility that burns fossil fuels to produce electricity

A fossil fuel power station is a thermal power station which burns a fossil fuel, such as coal or natural gas, to produce electricity. Fossil fuel power stations have machinery to convert the heat energy of combustion into mechanical energy, which then operates an electrical generator. The prime mover may be a steam turbine, a gas turbine or, in small plants, a reciprocating gas engine. All plants use the energy extracted from the expansion of a hot gas, either steam or combustion gases. Although different energy conversion methods exist, all thermal power station conversion methods have their efficiency limited by the Carnot efficiency and therefore produce waste heat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duke Energy</span> American electrical power and natural gas company

Duke Energy Corporation is an American electric power and natural gas holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thermal power station</span> Power plant that generates electricity from heat energy

A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a steam turbine connected to an electrical generator. The low-pressure exhaust from the turbine enters a steam condenser where it is cooled to produce hot condensate which is recycled to the heating process to generate more high pressure steam. This is known as a Rankine cycle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mountain Island Lake</span> Body of water

Mountain Island Lake is a lake northwest of Charlotte, North Carolina created in 1924 to coincide with the building of Mountain Island Hydroelectric Station. It is named after the mountain which appears as an island in the lake, and the surrounding area is identified by the lake's name. The shape of the lake follows the meander of the Catawba River's course, dammed near the Mount Holly Wastewater Plant. Full pond elevation is approximately 647.5 feet (197 m). The lake has around 3,281 acres (13 km2) of surface area and 61 miles (98 km) of shoreline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cottam power stations</span> Two power stations, the coal-fired station closed in 2019

Cottam power station is a decommissioned coal-fired power station. The site extends over 620 acres (250 ha) of mainly arable land and is situated at the eastern edge of Nottinghamshire on the west bank of the River Trent at Cottam near Retford. The larger coal-fired station, was decommissioned by EDF Energy in 2019 in line with the UK's goal to meet its zero-coal power generation by 2025. The smaller in-use station is Cottam Development Centre, a combined cycle gas turbine plant commissioned in 1999, with a generating capacity of 440 MW. This plant is owned by Uniper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zaporizhzhia thermal power station</span> Thermal power station in Enerhodar, Ukraine

Zaporizhzhia thermal power station is a large non-nuclear thermal power plant (DRES) in the purpose-built city of Enerhodar in Ukraine that was built by the Soviet Union between 1971 and 1977. It is the most powerful thermal power station in Ukraine, with an installed capacity of 2,850 MWe. Its primary fuel is coal; it can also fire natural gas and fuel oil, and has tank storage for these reserve fuels adjacent to the coal bunkers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Power Station</span>

Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Power Station is a power station, which fires natural gas, bunker oil and coal, located in Kapar, Klang District, Selangor, Malaysia. It was opened in March 1987 by then Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, and the station was named after him. In terms of power producing capacity, it remains the largest power station in Malaysia, despite the commissioning of several new power stations with 700MW steam turbines. It is also the first coal-fired power plant in the country.

Edwardsport Power Station is a 618 MW Integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) coal based power plant in Vigo Township, Knox County, near the town of Edwardsport, Indiana. The integrated gasification combined cycle power plant construction started in June 2008 by Duke Energy near the site of an older 160 MW coal-fired electrical power plant, which was decommissioned in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rock River Generating Station</span>

Rock River Generating Station was an electrical power station located north of Beloit, Wisconsin in the town of Beloit at 827 W. B. R. Townline Road on the west bank of the Rock River. The facility was owned and operated by Wisconsin Power and Light, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alliant Energy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tilbury power stations</span> Thermal power stations in Essex, England

The Tilbury power stations were two thermal power stations on the north bank of the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex. The 360 MW dual coal- and oil-fired Tilbury A Power Station operated from 1956 until 1981 when it was mothballed, prior to demolition in 1999. The 1,428 MW Tilbury B Power Station operated between 1968 and 2013 and was fueled by coal, as well as co-firing with oil and, from 2011, biomass. Tilbury B was demolished in 2016–19. Since 2013 three other power stations have been proposed or constructed in Tilbury.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James M. Barry Electric Generating Plant</span> Coal and gas electrical generation plant in Alabama, United States

James M. Barry Electric Generating Plant, also known as Barry Steam Plant or Plant Barry is a coal- and natural gas-fired electrical generation facility in Bucks, Mobile County, Alabama, United States. It lies on the west bank of the Mobile River, using it both for coal delivery as well as for cooling water. The plant was named for James M. Barry, President of Alabama Power Company from 1949 to 1952. As of 2018, the plant has 9 units, seven of which are powered by gas and two which are powered by coal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan River Steam Station</span>

The Dan River Steam Station is a power plant in Eden, North Carolina, owned by Duke Energy. The plant comprises three natural gas-fueled combustion turbines, which began operation in 1968.), and two natural gas-fueled combined cycle turbines are planned for the near future. A coal-fired electrical power plant at the site ceased operation in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Springfield Generating Station</span> Power plant in Massachusetts, U.S.

The West Springfield Generating Station, also known by its corporate name EP Energy Massachusetts, LLC, is a fossil-fuel-fired power plant located in West Springfield, Massachusetts. The station is a "peaking" facility, meaning that it primarily operates during peak electrical demand. The facility consists of two 49-megawatt (MW) combustion turbine generators fueled by natural gas or ultra low-sulphur diesel fuel, one 18 MW jet turbine that is fueled by kerosene, and one 107 MW simple-cycle steam boiler unit burning no. 6 fuel oil, ULSD or natural gas. The station also has a small auxiliary boiler for process and building heat and an emergency back-up generator. The station's management also operates several small remote power generators including two other jet turbines identical to West Springfield 10 which are the Doreen Street unit in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and Woodland Road unit in Lee, Massachusetts as well as five run-of-river hydroelectric power stations located on the Chicopee and Deerfield Rivers.

Repowering is the process of replacing older power stations with newer ones that either have a greater nameplate capacity or more efficiency which results in a net increase of power generated. Repowering can happen in several different ways. It can be as small as switching out and replacing a boiler, to as large as replacing the entire system to create a more powerful system entirely. There are many upsides to repowering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riverbend Steam Station</span> Former coal-fired electrical power plant in North Carolina

The Riverbend Steam Station was a former 454-MW coal-fired electrical power plant in Gaston County, North Carolina, owned by Duke Energy. It was originally slated for decommissioning in 2015, but was closed in April 2013. The four-unit station was named for a bend in the Catawba River on which it was located. Riverbend was considered a cycling station to be brought on line to supplement supply when electricity demand was highest. Four gas-fired combustion turbine units were also housed on the site, but were retired in October 2012. The last recognizable section of the structure and its boiler were demolished on 22 June 2018. Duke Energy claimed that coal ash basins from Riverbend Steam Station were fully excavated in March 2019.

Dukeville is a populated place in Rowan County, North Carolina, United States.

The H.F. Lee Energy Complex, formerly the Goldsboro Plant, is an electrical power generating complex operated by Duke Energy. The power complex was originally owned by the Carolina Power & Light Company, which inaugurated a coal-fired power plant in 1951. Two more coal plants were added in 1952 and 1962, and then oil-fueled turbines were added in 1967–71. In 2012 these units were shut down and replaced by four gas-fired units. The Quaker Neck Lake was built as a cooling pond for the coal-fired power stations, and is still used to supply cooling water. It was originally impounded by a low dam on the Neuse River, but in 1998 the dam was removed, while the lake remained contained in an earthen wall. This change allowed fish to migrate further upstream for spawning. Ash ponds near the lake hold toxic coal ash. There are plans to remove and recycle or bury the ash.

The W.S. Lee Steam Station, which was previously called the Lee Steam Station, is an electric generation station located near Williamston, South Carolina on the Saluda River. It was named for William States Lee who was chief engineer of Duke Power. He is the grandfather of William States Lee III, who was a chairman and president of Duke Power.

References

  1. 1 2 "Duke Energy: New Natural Gas Generation". Archived from the original on 2011-08-07. Retrieved 2010-07-19.
  2. Associated Press (2014-06-17). "Dukeville concerns over coal ash: 5 things to know". The Denver Post. Archived from the original on 2016-02-12. Retrieved 2014-06-17.
  3. Fisher, Hugh (2014-05-06). "Riverkeeper: Coal ash from Buck steam plant poses toxic threat". Salisbury Post. Archived from the original on 2016-02-12. Retrieved 2014-06-17.
  4. "Duke Energy Carolinas Advances Plan to Meet Growing Customer Demand". Duke Energy. 2007. Archived from the original on 2011-05-27. Retrieved July 19, 2010.
  5. Whisenant, David (October 20, 2018). "Implosion brings down part of Buck Steam Station in Rowan County". WBTV . Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  6. Leggett, Page (May 8, 2019). "A televised farewell to a historic power plant". Duke Energy illumination.
  7. "Inside Mighty Machines: Power Plant". Smithsonian Channel .
  8. "Inside Mighty Machines: Power Plant (S1.E2)". IMDb .