PPL’s Montour power plant had its most productive year ever in 2006.
The coal-fired power plant near Washingtonville, Montour County, generated 10.9 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, which is enough to power more than 1 million homes. The typical home in north central Pennsylvania uses about 10,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.
“All the credit belongs to our employees for their conscientious work and attention to detail,” said Michael Munroe, plant manager. “They are the primary reason for the successes we’ve had.”
In its 34-year history, the plant’s previous record for electricity generated was 10.8 billion kilowatt-hours in 1990.
Significant records in reliability and safety also highlighted the plant’s 2006 performance.
The plant was available to operate 91 percent of the time in 2006, besting the previous plant record of 87 percent set in 1990. The industry average for coal-fired power plants similar to Montour is 84 percent.
Plant employees also established a record for industrial safety in 2006 that has carried over into 2007. At the end of January, they had worked more than 320 consecutive days without an accident. The plant has more than 250 full-time employees.
Notably, the Montour plant was able to set these records while managing the largest construction project in its history: a $600 million addition of advanced environmental controls.
When completed in 2008, these controls will improve air quality by removing nearly all of the sulfur dioxide from plant emissions. Sulfur dioxide is a cause of acid rain.
In addition to benefiting the environment, the plant addition is creating jobs for the community. A drywall manufacturing facility is being built adjacent to the power plant. It will use synthetic gypsum that will be created as a byproduct of the process to remove the sulfur dioxide from plant emissions.
PPL Montour is owned by PPL Corporation, which is headquartered in Allentown, Pa., controls more than 11,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to more than 5 million customers in Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom and Latin America.