St. Francis, WI: 1921-1983,1987 160mw Lakeside Power Plant and First Pulverized Coal

(Satellite)

Michael Miller posted two photos with the comment: "Not my photos, but Lakeside Power Plant that once stood in Milwaukee WI.  Opened in the 1920's, with a capacity of 40 megawatts and was the world's first generating plant to burn pulverized coal and fed by an electric railroad.  It was converted to natural gas in 1969, ran until 1983.  Torn down in 1987."

1

2

Carson King commented on Michael's post
In case anybody was wondering what the interior was like.
Brennen Williams: Carson King love the amount of lighting on the turbines. The plants of that time were truly a symbol of prosperity and industrial might.

The plant opened in 1921 and the address was 3744 S. Lake Dr. [Milwaukee Public Library]

1958 South Milwaukee Quad @ 1:24,000

"First in world to burn pulverized coal.  Soon holds world record for efficiency." Coal trains stopped running in 1969 because it was converted to natural gas. But in the 1970s it used tank cars to bring fuel oil in because of a natural gas shortage. This power plant used to provide electric power to an interurban railroad. Some of their equipment was donated to railway museums. [trainweb]

hannemanarchive
jsonline ("limited articles")
[I think I see an eighth unit. An even number of units make more sense.]
Dennis DeBruler commented on Michael's post
I also found this interior shot on a couple of sources. I think there were eight units in the plant. So when it opened with 40mw, does that mean it was operating with only one unit? Those units strike me as too big to be just 5mw. Or did it open with 2 units and each unit is 20mw?

Michael commented on Dennis' question
It opened with 2 units each 20 MW. This diagram shows both units labeled as unit 2 but I think it's safe to assume that's an error.

PowerMag History
The 40-MW Lakeside Power Plant in St. Francis, Wisconsin, began operations in 1921. This image shows the steam turbines and generators at Lakeside, which was the world’s first plant to burn pulverized coal exclusively. Courtesy: WEC Energy Group