Sandow Power Plant was a 1.1-gigawatt (1,137 MW)

coal power plant A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide there are about 2,500 coal-fired power stations, on average capable of generating a gigawatt each. They generate ...

located southwest of

Rockdale, Texas Rockdale is a city in Milam County, Texas, United States. Its population was 5,323 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is approximately 41 miles west of College Station, Texas, College Station. History As a passing point ...

in Milam County,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. It was operated by Luminant, a subsidiary of

Vistra Corp Vistra Corp. is a Fortune 500 integrated retail electricity and power generation company based in Irving, Texas. The company is the largest competitive power generator in the U.S. with a capacity of approximately 39GW powered by a diverse portfol ...

. The plant closed in 2018.

Sandow Power Plant Units 1–3

Sandow was constructed by

Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for "Aluminum Company of America") is an American industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary alu ...

in 1951 to power its nearby

aluminium smelting Aluminium smelting is the process of extracting aluminium from its oxide, alumina, generally by the Hall-Héroult process. Alumina is extracted from the ore bauxite by means of the Bayer process at an alumina refinery. This is an electroly ...

facility. Operations of Sandow's first three units began in 1954 with a nearby man-made reservoir called Alcoa Lake utilized to cool the plant. In the 1980s, Alcoa commenced a

mid-life update A mid-life update, particularly in the context of defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians ...

to Units 1–3 at a cost of $63 million. After its completion, pollution from the plant increased by 13,000 tons annually. A settlement with the

Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency may refer to the following government organizations: * Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland), Australia * Environmental Protection Agency (Ghana) * Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) * Environmenta ...

(EPA) was agreed upon in 2003 to remedy the plant for violating the Clear Air Act. Ultimately, Units 1–3 would be decommissioned in 2009.

Sandow Power Plant Units 4–5

The plant had two active units at the time of its closure: Unit 4 began operation in 1981 and Unit 5 began operation in 2009. The power plant used

lignite Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered the lowest ...

from the Sandow mine in Rockdale until 2006, when Three Oaks Mine in nearby

Bastrop County, Texas Bastrop County is located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is in Central Texas and its county seat is Bastrop, Texas, Bastrop. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 97,216. Bastrop County is included in the ...

opened. Unit 4 was retrofitted with a

selective catalytic reduction Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) means converting nitrogen oxides, also referred to as with the aid of a catalyst into diatomic nitrogen (), and water (). A reductant, typically anhydrous ammonia (), aqueous ammonia (), or a urea () soluti ...

(SCR) system by Fluor in 2008 to reduce

nitrogen oxide Nitrogen oxide may refer to a binary compound of oxygen and nitrogen, or a mixture of such compounds: Charge-neutral *Nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen(II) oxide, or nitrogen monoxide * Nitrogen dioxide (), nitrogen(IV) oxide * Nitrogen trioxide (), o ...

() emissions. Transmission of electricity to the nearby aluminum smelter stopped in 2008 when Alcoa ceased smelting operations at its Rockdale facility and accused Luminant of power supply issues. It was announced on October 13, 2017 that Luminant would shut down Sandow Power Plant in early-2018 due to economic factors such as low natural gas prices and growth in renewable energy. The

Electric Reliability Council of Texas The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. (ERCOT) is an American organization that operates Texas's electrical grid, the Texas Interconnection, which supplies power to more than 25 million Texas customers and represents 90 percent of the st ...

(ERCOT) approved of the shut down the following month. ERCOT found the plant was "not required to support ERCOT transmission system reliability," and closed by January 11, 2018.

Demolition

Demolition of units four and five began in the spring of 2023 & is expected to be completed April 2024. The demolition is being carried out by Integrated Demolition and Remediation, the same company that demolished the Big Brown Power Plant in Fairfield Texas & Monticello Power Plant in Titus County, Texas. On September 1, 2023 at 10 AM central daylight saving time, the bag houses on unit five powerplant, some concrete silos and the old smokestacks for units one, two and three were demolished by collapse by detonation. At 11 AM on March 2, 2024, the unit four smokestack and unit five A and B boilers were demolished by implosion.

References

{{reflist

External links

Luminant page for Sandow Power Plant
Energy infrastructure completed in 1954 Energy infrastructure completed in 1981 Energy infrastructure completed in 2009 Buildings and structures in Milam County, Texas Former coal-fired power stations in Texas 1954 establishments in Texas 2018 disestablishments in Texas Vistra Corp

Sandow Power Plant Units 1–3

Sandow Power Plant Units 4–5

Demolition

See also

References

External links