Big Brown Power Station an Example of Luminant's Dedication to Excellence

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Nestled in Central Texas is Luminant Energy Company LLC's Big Brown Power Station, a 1,186-megawatt (MW) coal-fired plant that has been operational since 1971. Luminant is a subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings (EFH) (Dallas, Texas), formerly TXU Corporation. The facility, which consists of two 593.4-MW Siemens Westinghouse steam turbine generators and an Alstom (EPA:ALO) (Levallois Perret, France)/CE supercritical boiler system, was the first large lignite-fired power station in Texas. The plant currently employs about 150 people.

Last month, the facility was named "Plant of the Year" by the Powder River Basin (PRB) Coal Users' Group. Many factors are considered during the award process, including safety, housekeeping, maintenance and operational ability of the facility. Starting in 2000, the Big Brown plant has been using PRB coal and slowly increased the amount in its blend. The current blend utilizes 40% PRB coal and 60% lignite coal. The plant is expected to increase PRB coal in the mix to 60% by 2012. Records show that the unique way that this facility blends its fuel has reduced slagging and failures that are usually experienced by other plants that use a coal blend including PRB. The facility has overhauled its fuel handling system and introduced extra watering and foaming systems. In addition, American Air Filter RotoClone dust collecting systems were installed, as well as an InteliFlo chute system in 2007.

The housekeeping, maintenance and operations programs have made this plant stand out, as well. Luminant recently adopted the lean manufacturing production system created by the Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE:TM) (Toyota City, Aichi) and is now implementing it into all of its facilities. The plant has an availability record of approximately of 94% and a forced outage average of less than 4% over the last three years.

Construction is under way on two Alstom selective non-catalytic reduction units to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions and is being overseen by Fluor Enterprises Incorporated (Greenville, South Carolina), a subsidiary of Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) (Irving, Texas). The units are expected to be operational this fall. Luminant also has teamed up with Skyonic Corporation (Austin, Texas) to perform studies on a process that turns flue gas such as carbon dioxide into harmless substances like sodium bicarbonate by using a technology called SkyMine.

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