Carroll Electric members, staff tour Cardinal Power Plant
FPS staff report
October 18, 2010
|PLANT TOUR. A portion of the Carroll Electric Co-op members who took a tour of the Cardinal Plant are shown above. From left are: Paul and Jill Ujcich, Bernie Woller, facilities and special projects director for Buckeye Power; Stephanie Moore, member services representative for Carroll Electric; and Bernie Lombardi with the Cardinal Plant.|
Seventeen Carroll Electric Cooperative, Inc. members and staff toured Buckeye Power’s Coal-Fired Cardinal Plant near Brilliant, Ohio on October 7, 2010.
Unit 3 at the Cardinal Station powers much of Ohio’s rural electric cooperative members including the lines serviced by Carroll Electric Cooperative, Inc. in parts of Carroll, Columbiana, Harrison, Jefferson, Stark and Tuscarawas Counties. The plant, which incorporates state-of-the-art coal burning technology, has been producing electricity since September 1977.
The plant utilizes coal from local mines as well as low-sulfur coal transported from Wyoming. The coal is pulverized into a powdery substance and blown into a boiler system that converts water into steam. The steam is then used to turn fan-like blades inside a turbine which then produces electricity through a generator. The 26,000 volt electricity produced by the generator is then stepped up through a transformer to 345,000 volts for transmission over high-voltage power lines. Before it can reach a wall outlet or switch in your home, the voltage is then stepped down through a system of transformers and meters.
Buckeye’s power plant must produce electricity in an environmentally sensitive climate characterized by strict and enforceable performance standards. Buckeye has invested more than $700 million in environmental protection equipment for the two units it owns at the Cardinal Station. Among these controls are electrostatic precipitators, selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems and flue gas desulfurization (FGD).