Coordinates: 29°28′34″N 95°38′0″W / 29.47611°N 95.63333°W / 29.47611; -95.63333

WA Parish Generating Station

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W.A. Parish Generating Station
File:W.A. Parish Generating Plant Aerial.jpg
W.A. Parish, seen from northwest of the facility
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CountryUnited States
LocationThompsons, Texas
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StatusOperational
OwnerNRG Energy
Thermal power station
Primary fuelCoal
Secondary fuelNatural gas
Cooling sourceSmithers Lake
Power generation
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Nameplate capacity3,653 MW

The W.A. Parish Generating Station is a 3.65-gigawatt (3,653 MW), dual-fired power plant located near Thompsons, Texas. The station occupies a 4,664-acre site near Smithers Lake southwest of Houston in Fort Bend County and consists of two four-unit plants; one natural gas and the other coal (2,697 MW).[1] With a total installed capacity of 3,653 MW, it is the second largest conventional power station in the US, and supplies about fifteen percent of the energy in the Houston area.[2][3] NRG Energy owns and operates the plant.[1]

The Powder River Basin supplies three 115-car trainloads worth of low-sulfur coal to units 5-8 or 36,000 tons daily.[4][5]

Completed in January 2017, the post-combustion[6] Petra Nova Carbon Capture Project became the largest installed on an existing power plant in the world.[7][8] The system pumped 1.6 million tons of filtered carbon dioxide (CO2) from unit 8 to the West Ranch Oil Field 82 miles away in Jackson County.[9][10] Since the system is powered by natural gas, it was originally expected to have a net effect of not releasing 785,000 tons of carbon annually.[11] The system cost approximately $1 billion,[12] but was idled from May 2020 to September 2023 due to the low price of oil during the COVID-19 pandemic.[13][14]

Adjacent to Parish Station is the natural gas Brazos Valley Power Plant owned by Calpine Energy which opened in 2003.[15]

Notable Incidents

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During the 2021 Texas power crisis, Parish Station was reported to have experienced up to a 664 MW loss in generation capacity, including an 80 MW decrease in capacity early in the crisis that contributed to the need for rolling blackouts.[16]

The Unit 8 turbine, which has a generating capacity of 610 MW, caught fire the night of May 8, 2022. While there were no injuries reported during the fire,[17] a chemical exposure incident during the repairs briefly hospitalized six workers.[18] The turbine was heavily damaged and remained offline as of August 2023.[19] Unit 8 was originally expected to be repaired by May 7, 2023.[20]

See also

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References

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