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J. Robert Welsh Power Plant

Coordinates: 33°03′18″N 94°50′22″W / 33.05500°N 94.83944°W / 33.05500; -94.83944
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J. Robert Welsh Power Plant
J. Robert Welsh Power Plant
Map
CountryUnited States
LocationTitus County, Texas, near Pittsburg, Texas
Coordinates33°03′18″N 94°50′22″W / 33.05500°N 94.83944°W / 33.05500; -94.83944
StatusOperational
Commission dateUnit 1: 1977
Unit 2: 1980
Unit 3: 1982
Decommission dateUnit 2: 2016
OwnerSWEPCO/AEP
Thermal power station
Primary fuelPowder River Basin sub-bituminous coal
Cooling sourceWelsh Reservoir
Power generation
Units operational2
Nameplate capacity1,056 MW

J. Robert Welsh Power Plant is a 1-gigawatt (1,056 MW), coal power plant located east of Pittsburg, Texas in Titus County, Texas. It is operated by SWEPCO, a subsidiary of AEP. The plant is named after J. Robert Welsh, a former President and Board Chairman of SWEPCO.[1]

History

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Welsh Power Plant had three units constructed: Unit 1 began operations in 1977, Unit 2 began operations in 1980, and Unit 3 began operations in 1982. All three units were installed with boilers from Babcock & Wilcox and turbines from Westinghouse. Combined, the three units had an operating capacity of 1,674 MW.[2]

In 2012, AEP announced they were reducing output at Unit 2 to coincide with the commencement of commercial operations at John W. Turk Jr. Coal Plant in Arkansas.[3] Unit 2 was officially decommissioned in April 2016 as a part of a major retrofitting project to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for Units 1 and 3.[4] It is currently scheduled to stop burning coal in 2028.[5]

The remaining two units use sub-bituminous coal mined from the Powder River Basin shipped via rail.[citation needed] Close to it, there is Welsh HVDC Converter Station, a back-to-back HVDC station.[6]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Welsh Power Plant Retrofit Project". Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  2. ^ "Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2006" (Excel). Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy. 2006. Retrieved January 11, 2018.
  3. ^ "AEP unit to reduce Texas Welsh 2 coal-fired unit to 60 percent". Reuters. December 21, 2012. Retrieved January 11, 2018.
  4. ^ "Welsh Power Plant Environmental Retrofit Project". SWEPCO. Retrieved January 11, 2018.
  5. ^ "More than 23 GW of coal capacity to retire in 2028 as plant closures accelerate". www.spglobal.com. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  6. ^ Directors, Clarion Energy Content (2015-06-29). "AEP taps Siemens to modernize HVDC system Welsh in Texas". POWERGRID International. Retrieved 2022-08-05.