WA Parish Generating Station explained

W.A. Parish Generating Station
Country:United States
Location:Thompsons, Texas
Owner:NRG Energy
Status:Operational
Th Fuel Primary:Coal
Th Fuel Secondary:Natural gas
Ps Cooling Source:Smithers Lake
Ps Electrical Capacity:3,653 MW

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]

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 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

During 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

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Texas Sets Record for Gas Power Burn, Still Barely Enough. Power Magazine. 18 August 2015.
  2. Web site: S&P Global : Platts : W.A. Parish Electric Generation Station, Thompson, Texas . https://web.archive.org/web/20161014172701/https://online.platts.com/PPS/P=m&s=1029337384756.1478827&e=1092414376630.634056602174080316/?artnum=200vh40u811t1F30702VSa_1 . dead . 2016-10-14 . Online.platts.com . 2017-04-03 .
  3. Web site: 2022-05-09 . Coal unit catches fire at NRG's W.A. Parish Generating Station in Fort Bend County . 2022-09-17 . ABC13 Houston . en.
  4. Web site: CenterPoint execs field questions about Sugar Land's Parish plant . 2017-04-03 . Bizjournals.com.
  5. Web site: How the Biggest Power Plant in Texas Will Use Pollution to Pump Oil | StateImpact Texas . Stateimpact.npr.org . 2012-02-21 . 2017-04-03.
  6. Web site: Carbon Capture Suffers a Huge Setback as Kemper Plant Suspends Work. 2017-06-29 . 2017-06-30 .
  7. Web site: World's Largest Carbon-Capture Plant to Open Soon . Scientific American . 2016-10-04 . 2017-04-03.
  8. Web site: Petra Nova Project| NRG Energy . Nrg.com . 3 April 2017.
  9. Web site: Kirk . Bryan . Parish Power Plant takes steps to clean up its operations in Fort Bend Count. Chron.com . 2 September 2014 . 3 April 2017.
  10. Web site: Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies @ MIT . Sequestration.mit.edu . 2022-09-17.
  11. Web site: NRG's $1B Bet To Show How Carbon Capture Could Be Feasible For Coal Power Plants. Wang. Ucilia. Forbes. 15 July 2014.
  12. Web site: NRG begins commercial operations of $1 billion carbon capture system. Ryan Maye Handy. 10 January 2017. 21 December 2017. Houston Chronicle.
  13. News: 2020-08-06 . Problems plagued U.S. CO2 capture project before shutdown: document . en . Reuters . 2022-09-17.
  14. Web site: Patel . Sonal . 2023-09-13 . Petra Nova, Pioneering Power Plant Carbon Capture Unit, Is Up and Running Again, says JX Nippon . 2023-09-27 . POWER Magazine . en-US.
  15. Web site: Seshadri Kumar . Brazos Valley power plant turns on lights . Chron.com . 2004-04-05 . 2017-04-03.
  16. Web site: Patel. Sonal. 2021-03-04. ERCOT Lists Generators Forced Offline During Texas Extreme Cold Event. 2021-09-24. POWER Magazine. en-US.
  17. Web site: STAFF . HERALD . Investigators seek answers to NRG energy plant blaze . 2022-09-17 . Fort Bend Herald . en.
  18. Web site: Zuvanich . Adam . 2022-09-30 . Chemical exposure at Houston-area power plant sends six workers to hospital – Houston Public Media . 2023-09-27 . www.houstonpublicmedia.org . en-US.
  19. News: Gardner . Timothy . 2023-08-02 . Restart delayed at Texas coal unit linked to Petra Nova CCS project . en . Reuters . 2023-09-27.
  20. Web site: Mathews . Chris . August 4, 2022 . NRG: Fire at Fort Bend County power plant could keep coal unit offline until Q2 2023 . 2022-09-17 . Houston Business Journal.

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