Oak Creek Power Plant

Oak Creek Power Plant, also known as South Oak Creek, is a base load, coal- and natural gas-fired, electrical power station located on Lake Michigan in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Oak Creek Power Plant along with Elm Road Generation Station make up the entire Oak Creek Generating Site.

Oak Creek Power Plant
CountryUnited States
LocationOak Creek, Wisconsin
Coordinates42°50′40″N 87°49′43″W
StatusOperational
Commission dateUnit 5: December, 1959
Unit 6: December, 1961
Unit 7: March, 1965
Unit 8: October, 1967
Unit 9 (gas-fired): December, 1968
Decommission dateUnits 1–4: 1980s
Owner(s)We Energies
Thermal power station
Primary fuelSub-bituminous coal
Cooling sourceLake Michigan
Power generation
Nameplate capacity1,135 MWe (pre-expansion)[1]

The plant was built for an initial cost of $246 million.[2] It is located on over 400 acres (160 ha) of land on the border of Milwaukee and Racine counties.

Advanced Air Quality Control Systems (AQCS) were installed in 2012 for $750 million on all four generating units. In 2009, it was listed as the third largest generating station in Wisconsin with a net summer capacity of 1,135 MW.[1][3] The plant consumes between 6,000 and 6,400 tons of coal daily depending on system demands.[4]

In 2018, the plant was listed as the fifth largest generation station in Wisconsin with an annual generation of 4,767,153 MW-h, behind Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant (10,128,796 MW-h), Elm Road Generating Station (7,913,698 MW-h), Columbia (6,641,670 MW-h), and Port Washington Generating Station (5,829,109 MW-h).[5]

Expansion

In 2005, two 615-megawatt coal-fueled units were constructed just north of the existing Oak Creek facility. Unit 1 began commercial operation on February 2, 2010.[6] with Unit 2 following in 2011.

Units
Unit Capacity (MW) Commissioning Notes
1–4 1950s Retired in the 1980s
5 275 (nameplate)
261 (summer)
262 (winter)[7]		 1959[7] Steam / Boiler
6 275 (nameplate)
264 (summer)
265 (winter)[7]		 1961[7] Steam / Boiler
7 317.6 (nameplate)
298 (summer)
298 (winter)[7]		 1965[7] Steam / Boiler
8 324 (nameplate)
298 (summer)
298 (winter)[7]		 1967[7] Steam / Boiler
9 18 1968 Natural gas combustion turbine for startup / standby power

Electricity Production
Generation (MW-h) of Oak Creek Power Plant[8]
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual (Total)
2001 599,903 386,288 586,060 439,401 420,077 507,277 581,769 625,569 557,874 425,936 387,100 392,525 5,909,779
2002 320,085 278,479 346,886 450,278 509,830 519,557 667,531 581,555 599,788 401,395 369,858 351,678 5,396,920
2003 490,247 548,273 411,909 404,948 345,410 -- -- 525,253 506,264 616,017 -- 528,223 4,376,544
2004 520,350 496,292 515,707 552,174 626,360 512,023 563,225 603,295 523,212 596,911 607,619 609,822 6,726,990
2005 425,766 485,983 517,303 311,974 468,986 587,898 542,057 532,259 484,012 525,474 461,472 543,560 5,886,744
2006 517,428 470,920 402,268 533,264 431,872 512,462 625,911 636,208 457,973 419,180 439,138 417,761 5,864,385
2007 442,180 311,026 476,592 475,341 294,592 442,023 443,423 509,559 525,788 609,329 543,514 614,278 5,687,645
2008 649,522 469,251 491,345 475,235 485,854 461,770 578,952 590,716 505,522 316,462 301,520 543,326 5,869,475
2009 421,119 369,070 372,864 209,879 257,097 208,277 373,105 398,435 357,620 528,898 440,298 488,155 4,424,817
2010 522,094 369,927 395,493 294,656 356,467 360,564 450,478 489,808 408,345 364,816 281,199 484,790 4,778,637
2011 451,893 397,487 486,677 417,898 384,786 481,937 502,354 564,146 521,612 562,632 199,601 411,104 5,382,127
2012 253,738 274,555 316,200 296,193 203,427 359,851 316,445 353,613 478,752 331,584 368,398 451,008 4,003,764
2013 433,223 451,226 235,774 295,832 510,735 512,249 585,403 371,569 365,253 337,383 307,730 367,668 4,774,045
2014 502,734 453,546 423,901 374,949 257,790 339,093 445,038 440,342 460,758 392,030 -3,098 240,079 4,327,162
2015 591,813 419,399 377,804 221,391 384,653 455,231 536,363 559,659 577,407 379,078 307,201 368,345 5,178,344
2016 453,391 139,861 237,660 255,627 259,785 354,270 458,210 529,096 372,767 252,218 234,063 306,847 3,853,795
2017 434,227 301,365 230,685 242,023 434,972 419,732 438,259 579,265 382,036 383,107 472,479 399,540 4,717,690
2018 466,953 455,757 170,333 265,890 209,481 410,902 527,953 535,549 478,141 412,129 323,916 510,149 4,767,153
2019 573,791 415,380 397,932 257,005 552,272 -- 348,927 484,824 140,123 56,216 239,536 340,006 3,806,012
2020 339,110 164,973 152,873 52,707 709,663

Subnotes:

(1) : Table data reflects electrical generation from all fuels (subbituminous coal, refined coal, and natural gas). Monthly natural gas generation represents on average 1% of total generation.

(2) : Major fuel switched from subbituminous coal to refined coal in January 2016

Incidents

On February 3, 2009, six contract workers were injured when coal dust ignited in a 65-foot coal dust silo on the power plant site. They had been preparing the structure for repairs when an unknown source ignited coal dust that had accumulated at the top of the silo. All suffered burns.

On October 31, 2011, a bluff area roughly the size of a football field and 200 feet above the level of Lake Michigan eroded, washing mud and debris into Lake Michigan. Close to 100 workers were at the site at the time of the collapse; none were hurt or killed.

See also

References

https://web.archive.org/web/20120425154809/http://oakcreek.patch.com/articles/the-day-after-we-energies-bluff-collapse-roundup

  1. "Oak Creek Power Plant" (PDF). We Energies. February 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 17, 2011. Retrieved May 15, 2011.
  2. "We Energies Oak Creek Power Plant". www.we-energies.com. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
  3. "Wisconsin – Ten Largest Plants by Generating Capacity, 2009" (PDF). U.S. Energy Information Administration. 2009. Retrieved May 15, 2011.
  4. "We Energies Elm Road Generating Station". www.we-energies.com. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
  5. "EIA - State Electricity Profiles". www.eia.gov. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
  6. "Elm Road Generating Station". Bechtel Corporation. Archived from the original on January 22, 2009.
  7. "Electricity Generating Capacity: Existing Electric Generating Units by Energy Source, 2008". U.S. Energy Information Administration. Retrieved May 15, 2011.
  8. "Electricity Data Browser". www.eia.gov. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
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