VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, [4] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 23:33:17 05/04/01 Fri
Author: Celeste
Subject: Details on the Power Plant
In reply to: SHOCKED 's message, "Power Plant Blues" on 21:15:51 04/04/01 Wed

As I read through the posts here, and checked the forum, I realized I had not seen a summary of what this plant is. So for those who have not had the opportunity to read the details in reports or learn via hearings, and who might be interested in the details, here is an outline of what this plant is.

The sources are the Nickel Hill Final Environmental Impact Report and the Special Permit issued by the Town of Dracut to Nickel Hill. There are no personal commentaries here - and I have made every attempt to get the details correct.

Nickel Hill Energy, LLC (Limited Liability Corporation)
Wholly owned subsidiary of Constellation Power, Inc.
Constellation Power has a direct ownership in approximately 34 energy projects totaling 1100 megawatts (average 32 megawatts per project).

This will be a 750 megawatt plant.

Location: 25 acre site located on the Brox Industries parcel in the southeastern corner of Dracut which is zoned I-1, Light Industrial. It borders the Methuen town line, Methuen St. in Dracut. The closest homes are on Wheeler St., 1200-1300 feet from the power block. Other homes, on the south side of Poppy Lane, are 1600 feet from the power block.

The facility, with a Methuen St. plant entrance, will consist of:

- 80,000 square foot facility (that will house the turbines heat generators, etc.),
- 12 - wet mechanical cooling towers, 55' high
- 2 - 170' stacks, 22 feet in diameter
- water and wastewater treatment systems,
- water and wastewater storage tanks,
- main and auxiliary tranformers,
- a compact gas insulated 345 kilovolt (kV) switchyard
- administrative and maintenance facilities.

And in more detail:

- nominal 750 megawatt natural gas-fired plant.

- evaporative cooling by means of a wet cooling tower method

- two gas turbine/generator sets operated in a combined-cycle mode (I have been told that combined-cycle, a technology that has been in use since the 1960's, means that it produces energy from both a combustion turbine and a steam turbine using a single fuel source of natural gas)

- two heat recovery steam generators (HRSG) (68 feet high)

- one steam turbine/generator (50 feet high)

- Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) system for NOx control and an oxidation catalyst for CO control

- two 170' stacks, 22 feet in diameter

- 345 kilovolt switchyard

- twelve 55-foot wet mechanical draft cooling towers

- a 1.5 million gallon filtered water storage tank

- a water treatment system

- a 500,000 gallon demineralized (treated) water storage tank

- storage for hazardous waste/materials (including a 30,000 gallon tank for aqueous ammonia storage)


The plant will be fueled by natural gas delivered via the Tennessee Pipeline and the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline. No fuel oil will be used for the project, but up to 5,000 gallons of distillate fuel oil will be kept on site to fuel an emergency generator.

Nickel Hill will remove a maximum of 3.6 million gallons per day (peak load during summer months) from the Merrimack River. Non peak average will be 2.8 million gallons per day. Worst case would be 4.4 million gallons per day.

The water intake structure will be an infiltration bed that will be located flush with the river bottom. A pumphouse will be located along Rt. 110.

Three trucks per week will deliver 6500-6750 gallons each of acqueous ammonia. Because of the danger associated with aqueous ammonia, trucks will be delivered between the hours of 3am to 6am to a bermed unloading area into the 30,000 gallon ammonia tank.

It will take 2 years to build. It will employ about 30 full time staff of engineers, plant operators and maintenance specialists.

Emissions are expected to be:

Nitrogen Oxide (157 tons per year)
Sulphur Dioxide (65 tons per year)
Particulate Matter (111 tons per year)
Carbon Monoxide (309 tons per year)
Volatile Organic Compounds (98 tons per year)
Ammonia (288 tons per year)
Formaldehyde, and others...
Total: greater than 2.8 tons per day


From MASSPIRG website:
Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) source of fine particulates (soot), a respiratory irritant that can cause premature death.

Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) key ingredient in the formation of smog, especially harmful to children and people with respiratory diseases.

Both NOx and SO2 are also major ingredients in acid rain, which damages forests, lakes and rivers and kills fish and plant life.

And from another source:
Volatile Organic Compounds combine with NOx to cause damage to the ozone layer.


I wish I could scan into this message an aerial shot of a similar plant - it is quite massive. But contact me if you do want to see one and I will figure out how to get it to you.

Hope someone finds this useful or interesting.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Post a message:
This forum requires an account to post.
[ Create Account ]
[ Login ]
Forum timezone: GMT-5
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.