Bruce Mansfield Power Plant

Bruce Mansfield Power Plant was a 2.49-gigawatt (2,490 MW), coal power plant located in Shippingport, Pennsylvania in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. The plant was operated by FirstEnergy. It began operations in 1976 and was shut down in November 2019.[1]

Bruce Mansfield Power Plant
Bruce Mansfield Power Plant from the Shippingport Bridge in 2019
CountryUnited States
LocationShippingport, Pennsylvania
Coordinates40°38′04″N 80°25′01″W
StatusOperational
Commission dateUnit 1: 1976
Unit 2: 1977
Unit 3: 1980
Decommission dateUnits 1–2: February 5, 2019
Unit 3: November 7, 2019
Owner(s)FirstEnergy
Operator(s)FirstEnergy
Thermal power station
Primary fuelCoal
Cooling sourceOhio River
Power generation
Nameplate capacity2,490 MW
External links
CommonsRelated media on Commons

History

Construction of Bruce Mansfield commenced in 1970. The plant was operated by Pennsylvania Power (a subsidiary of Ohio Edison). Its ownership was a consortium of Pennsylvania Power, Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating, Toledo Edison, and Duquesne Light to form the Central Area Power Coordination (CAPCO).[2] Bruce Mansfield began commercial operations of Unit 1 in 1976 with Units 2 and 3 following suit in 1977 and 1980 respectively. All three of the units generated 830 MW each with a nameplate capacity of 2490 MW.[3] The plant was named after D. Bruce Mansfield, a former chairman of Pennsylvania Power.[2] Murray Energy was the primary supplier of coal for Bruce Mansfield. The coal was shipped from West Virginia.[4]

FirstEnergy Solutions announced in August 2018 that they were closing Bruce Mansfield by June 2021. FirstEnergy Solutions blamed the wholesale market system, which PJM Interconnection operates on, for not relying on coal and nuclear plants.[5] PJM Interconnection conducted an analysis and concluded the plant's closure would not affect grid reliability.[6] The closure was moved back to November 2019 due to, "a lack of economic viability."[7]

Environmental mitigation

Units 1 and 2 were installed with a flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) system to prevent sulfur dioxide (SO2) from being emitted into the atmosphere.[3][8] Its chimney is 950 feet (290 m) tall.[3] The sludge was then transported 7 miles (11 km) by pipe to Little Blue Run Lake between Beaver County, Pennsylvania and Hancock County, West Virginia.[3][8] When Unit 3 was constructed in 1980, an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) system, designed by the Weir Group, was installed instead for the unit to curb particulate emissions.[9] Its chimney is 600 feet (180 m) tall.[3] To reduce waste disposal from scrubbers at Bruce Mansfield, National Gypsum constructed a nearby plant in 1998 to process synthetic gypsum from the plant to produce drywall.[10] To deliver the gypsum for the nearby manufacturer, a forced-oxidation gypsum (FOG) system was built.[11] A $200 million dewatering facility was completed in 2016 in response to a 2012 settlement that prohibits the further disposal of byproduct at Little Blue Run Lake. The facility would separate byproduct from water and then be properly disposed of in a lined impoundment at Murray Energy's mine in Marshall County, West Virginia.[12][13] The dewatering facility began operations in January 2017, but problems at the new facility forced the plant to go offline the following month.[14] The plant restarted two weeks later.[15]

Incidents

A release of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) during repair work on a pipe killed two and injured four workers in August 2017.[16] The workers' families who experienced casualties in the accident filed lawsuits against FirstEnergy in November 2017 seeking damages.[17] Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined FirstEnergy $77,605 for workplace hazards and also fined subcontractor Enerfab $129,340 for failing to provide "appropriate respiratory protection".[18] FirstEnergy ultimately settled by paying a fine of $65,963.[19]

On January 10, 2018, Bruce Mansfield caught on fire causing damage to its roof and duct work.[20] In a filing later that month, FirstEnergy revealed that the fire caused significant damage to the equipment for Units 1 and 2.[21] The damage was severe enough that deactivation of both units were accelerated from June 2021 to February 5, 2019.[22]

See also

References
  1. "Two of America's biggest coal plants closed this month". 16 November 2019.
  2. "Huge coal-fired Shippingport plant officially dedicated to Mansfield". New Castle News. October 20, 1976. p. 3. Retrieved April 4, 2018 – via Newspaper Archive.
  3. "Bruce Mansfield Plant Facts" (PDF). FirstEnergy. August 2016. Retrieved February 5, 2019.
  4. Sweeney, Darren (August 29, 2018). "FirstEnergy Solutions to shut down 4,000 MW of coal capacity". S&P Global Market Intelligence. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
  5. Funk, John (August 29, 2018). "FirstEnergy Solutions closing its last Ohio and Pennsylvania coal-fired power plants". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
  6. Stonesifer, Jared (October 4, 2018). "Study: Bruce Mansfield closure won't affect electric grid reliability". Ellwood City Ledger. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  7. Wade, Will (August 9, 2019). "Coal Unit at Center of Trump Bailout Bid to Shut 19 Months Early". Bloomberg. Retrieved August 9, 2019.
  8. "A History Of Flue Gas Desulfurization Systems Since 1850". Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association. 27 (10): 957. October 1977. doi:10.1080/00022470.1977.10470518.
  9. Karlsson, Hans T.; Rosenberg, Harvey S. (July 1980). "Technical Aspects of Lime/Limestone Scrubbers for Coal-Fired Power Plants". Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association. 30 (7): 823. doi:10.1080/00022470.1980.10465116.
  10. McKay, Jim; Zapinski, Ken (March 9, 1998). "National Gypsum will turn sludge from power plant into wallboard". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved February 11, 2018.
  11. "Focus on O&M (September 2006)". POWER. September 15, 2006. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  12. Taube, David (November 8, 2015). "New facility at Bruce Mansfield power plant to process coal byproduct". Herald-Standard. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  13. Litvak, Anya (December 1, 2016). "Bruce Mansfield coal ash headed to West Virginia". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  14. Moore, Daniel (February 16, 2017). "Waste disposal problems halt operations at FirstEnergy's Beaver County plant". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  15. Stonesifer, Jared (February 24, 2017). "Two units at Bruce Mansfield coal plant to restart early next week". The Times. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  16. Kane, Karen (August 30, 2017). "Gas kills two workers, injures four at Beaver County power plant". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  17. Moore, Daniel (November 17, 2017). "Injured workers, widows sue FirstEnergy over fatal power plant incident". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  18. Frazier, Reid (March 6, 2018). "Fatal gas leak at Pittsburgh-area power plant draws OSHA fines". StateImpact Pennsylvania. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  19. Stonesifer, Jared (August 24, 2018). "FirstEnergy agrees to pay fines stemming from fatal accident at Bruce Mansfield". The Times. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  20. Washington, Lisa (January 10, 2018). "Ductwork Fire Proves To Be Challenging For Crews At Bruce Mansfield Plant". CBS Pittsburgh. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  21. Stonesifer, Jared (January 22, 2018). "Bruce Mansfield fire may have caused "significant" damage to plant". The Times. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  22. "First Energy Restructuring Update". IBEW Local 29 Pittsburgh, PA. November 8, 2018. Retrieved November 12, 2018.
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