Grand Island coal plant shuts down for maintenance

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by Katie Gauthier

Story Created: Sep 27, 2012 at 4:52 PM CDT

Story Updated: Sep 27, 2012 at 5:36 PM CDT

Starting Thursday there will be an eerie quiet at the Platte Generating Station. Typically water vapor is billowing out the top of the stacks and machines are humming inside.

The Grand Island coal burning power plant will be shut down for about six weeks. But don't worry, it's routine.

About 90 contractors will perform maintenance work on the plant, including work on the turbine.

The plant typically provides around 100 megawatts of power for the city of Grand Island.

The shutdown will benefit the city by reducing pollution.

"We're going to install low nox burners on our boiler. And what low nox burners are, it's changing the way we inject the coal and burn the coal inside the boiler and it will reduce the amount of noxious gases that the plant is emitting," said Assistant Utilities Director Lynn Mayhew.

While the plant is shut down the city will use power from surrounding areas.

During the extreme heat this summer the plant hit its maximum power with Grand Island using 170 megawatts of power.

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