AEP’s Pirkey Power Plant Discovers Major Boiler Damage

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). American Electric Power’s (NYSE:AEP) Henry W. Pirkey power plant will extend a current planned outage for another three weeks due to extensive damage found in the boiler tubes. Officials are considering replacement of the boiler tubes on the 660-megawatt (MW), which will take about three weeks to complete. The station had originally planned only a ten-day outage until engineers discovered severe damage to the tubes while performing boiler inspections this past weekend.

The Henry W. Pirkey generating station is located in Hallsville, Texas. Hallsville is a city located in Harrison County with a population of 2,772. The station consists of one coal-fired 660 MW unit. Company officials were contemplating the future addition of a 660 MW unit to be completed sometime in the year 2011, but that project has been scrapped for a new plant in Arkansas. Employees at the plant have increased their safety actions in recent years. In 2004, the plant completed its second consecutive year without a recordable incident.

The station was named after Henry W. Pirkey, Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) president from 1965 to 1972. SWEPCO is the current operator of the station. SWEPCO operates nine power plants and utilizes coal to produce more than 80% of its generation. SWEPCO is owned by American Electric Power (AEP).

AEP (American Electric Power) is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States with more than 5 million customers in eleven states. The company owns nearly 36,000 megawatts of generating capacity and also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system. This system includes the most 765-kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP is based in Columbus, Ohio and last year celebrated its 100th anniversary.

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