History
The Kendall power plant was built in 1949, operating in "relative obscurity" for some time as it was only turned on when high energy levels were demanded.
In 2003, the power plant switched to natural gas from oil and became more active. In 2004, there were complaints from environmentalists that water intake and water discharge was damaging marine life.
A 2006 permit issued by federal and state environmental officials was appealed by power plant officials on the grounds of being too strict.
The plan for the GenOn Kendall Cogeneration Station to slice its hot water discharge was revealed in February 2011. It had been negotiated along with the Environmental Protection Agency New England office and state regulators. The plan called for converting hot water to steam to be sent to Boston, possibly by a pipe. The agreement ended "a six-year battle between the plant’s operators and environmentalists over its state and federal water discharge permits." Veolia Energy North America was working on the pipe, to be completed by 2016. As such, waste heat from the Kendall Cogeneration Station in Cambridge would heat buildings in Boston. The pipeline extension was completed in 2013.
In January 2012, the station had a production capacity of 256 megawatts, and in 2010 produced roughly 717,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. While it used natural gas primarily, it also had oil as a backup to produce both electricity and steam energy.
In 2012, the plant was owned by GenOn Energy. In 2013 Veolia Energy North America purchased the plant from NRG Energy. In 2020, Antin Infrastructure Partners acquired Veolia Energy North America and renamed it Vicinity Energy. [3]
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.
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.
Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time.
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.
District heating is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location through a system of insulated pipes for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating and water heating. The heat is often obtained from a cogeneration plant burning fossil fuels or biomass, but heat-only boiler stations, geothermal heating, heat pumps and central solar heating are also used, as well as heat waste from factories and nuclear power electricity generation. District heating plants can provide higher efficiencies and better pollution control than localized boilers. According to some research, district heating with combined heat and power (CHPDH) is the cheapest method of cutting carbon emissions, and has one of the lowest carbon footprints of all fossil generation plants.
GenOn Energy Holdings, formerly Mirant Corporation, was a subsidiary of GenOn Energy, and is now a part of NRG 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.
NRG Energy, Inc. is an American energy company, headquartered in Houston, Texas. It was formerly the wholesale arm of Northern States Power Company (NSP), which became Xcel Energy, but became independent in 2000. NRG Energy is involved in energy generation and retail electricity. Their portfolio includes natural gas generation, coal generation, oil generation, nuclear generation, wind generation, utility-scale generation, and distributed solar generation. NRG serves over 7 million retail customers in 24 US states including Texas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio; the District of Columbia, and eight provinces in Canada.
A heating plant, also called a physical plant, or steam plant, generates thermal energy in the form of steam for use in district heating applications. Unlike combined heat and power installations which produce thermal energy as a by-product of electricity generation, heating plants are dedicated to generating heat for use in various processes.
A gas-fired power plant, sometimes referred to as gas-fired power station, natural gas power plant, or methane gas power plant, is a thermal power station that burns natural gas to generate electricity. Gas-fired power plants generate almost a quarter of world electricity and are significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions. However, they can provide seasonal, dispatchable energy generation to compensate for variable renewable energy deficits, where hydropower or interconnectors are not available. In the early 2020s batteries became competitive with gas peaker plants.
The Morgantown Generating Station is a 1,477 MW electric generating plant owned by GenOn Holdings LLC., located in the unincorporated town of Newburg, Maryland, near Morgantown, on the Potomac River. The station was built in 1970.
The Dickerson Generating Station is an 853 MW electric generating plant owned by NRG Energy, located approximately two miles west of Dickerson, Maryland, on the eastern banks of the Potomac River.
The Chalk Point Generating Station is an electricity-generating plant, comprising oil and natural gas fired units, owned by NRG Energy, located near the town of Eagle Harbor, Maryland, United States, on the Patuxent River.
Energy recycling is the energy recovery process of using energy that would normally be wasted, usually by converting it into electricity or thermal energy. Undertaken at manufacturing facilities, power plants, and large institutions such as hospitals and universities, it significantly increases efficiency, thereby reducing energy costs and greenhouse gas pollution simultaneously. The process is noted for its potential to mitigate global warming profitably. This work is usually done in the form of combined heat and power or waste heat recovery.
The Midland Cogeneration Venture (MCV) is a natural gas-fired electrical and steam co-generation plant in Midland, Michigan owned by Midland Cogeneration Venture Limited Partnership. When it began operation in 1991, it was the largest gas-fired steam recovery power plant in the world.
The Te Rapa cogeneration plant is a 44 MW cogeneration plant owned and operated by Contact Energy. It is located at the Fonterra dairy factory, at Te Rapa near Hamilton in New Zealand, and was commissioned in 1999.
Thor Cogeneration is a planned, but undeveloped, gas-fired cogeneration plant, which was to be built on Seal Sands near Billingham, in County Durham, North East England.
Capital Power is a North American independent power generation company based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It develops, acquires, owns and operates power generation facilities using a variety of energy sources.
Vicinity Energy is the largest district energy provider in the United States. Headquartered in Boston, it is a subsidiary of Antin Infrastructure Partners. It launched at the beginning of 2020 on Antin's purchase of Veolia's U.S. 18 district energy assets in 11 cities for $1.25 billion, and has acquired further systems since.
