Coal Creek Station

Coal Creek Station is the largest power plant in the U.S. state of North Dakota. Located near the Missouri River between Underwood, North Dakota and Washburn, North Dakota, it is the largest lignite-fired electricity plant in North Dakota. Its two generators are each rated at 605 megawatts (Unit 1 went in service in 1979, Unit 2 came online in 1980), with a peak total production of nearly 1.2 gigawatts.

The station is owned by Great River Energy, an alliance of Minnesota rural electric cooperatives, and transmits its power to Minnesota over the CU power line, a 700-kilometre (430 mi) HVDC transmission line which is operated at +/- 400 kV. The line and plant were completed and put in service by 1981.

The Coal Creek Station, part of the larger CU Project, was the subject of controversy.

The boiler building of Coal Creek Station is 89.91 meters high. Hereby the boiler is fixed to the roof. The chimney of Coal Creek Station is 198.12 metres tall.

Coal Creek Station is the third-largest producer of coal ash in the country, generating over four million pounds of surface waste stored onsite each year.

Coal Creek Station was the testing site for Great River Energy's Lignite Enhancement System. Their project, “DryFining,” created a new technology for coal-firing power plants that improves fuel quality, decreases volatile gas emissions, and reduces a plant’s operating expenses and maintenance costs. The Great River Energy team also included fluid bed dryer engineer Heyl & Patterson Inc. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, Lehigh University’s Energy Research Center, the Electric Power Research Institute and engineering construction contractor WorleyParsons. The team was awarded with Power Engineering magazine’s 2010 Coal-Fired Project of the Year.

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