Trenton, MI: 1924-2022 775.5mw DTE Trenton Channel Power Plant (TCHPP)

(Satellite)

This 8:56 YouTube video has a lot of interior scenes. This plant had the first precipitators for pollution control. [1:24]

Street View from the Grosse Ile Free Bridge

Nameplate capacity: 775.5mw

• Unit #7: 120.0mw, 1949-2016
• Unit #8: 120.0mw, 1950-2015
• Unit #9: 525.5mw, 1968-2022

[gem]

safe_image for Trenton Channel Power Plant 1924 – 2022: end is near for its retirement
The Trenton Channel Power Plant is set to retire on June 19. (Photo courtesy Robert Fox)
It is continuing to provide power until its coal reserves are depleted.
Brennen Williams: Jeff Bradac DTE built a 2 unit combined cycle plant to compensate for the closing of St. Clair. However, the combined cycles do not entirely replace the lost MW output of closing both Trenton and St. Clair this year.
Evan Manley: A crew I spoke with ran the last coal train up there early this month [June 2022]. Really is a shame
[Some comments talk about the 1920s interior being a work of art.]

As has become rather common for power plant notes, I save a satellite image while it still has a coal storage pile.

3D Satellite

I noticed the conveyor going off the top of the image, so I followed it. It goes to a train unloading facility. I was shocked to see rail service because most of the DTE plants receive Powder River Basin (PRB) coal from a loading dock that they built in Superior, WI. I guess the Detroit River is too shallow here to allow Lakers to deliver coal. I wonder why DTE retired plants that could use Lakers before it retired this one.

If I remember correctly, DTE pioneered the idea of unit trains to haul coal from the PRB.

Satellite

I don't see the tall, dual-stack smokestack that I normally see when they have installed a scrubber for sulfur. I guess switching to PRB coal (Antelope and Black Thunder Coal Mines [gem]) was good enough. 

DTE Energy via freep

The buildings have changed a lot over the decades.

Trenton Channel (c. 1960s) via grobbel
DetroitHistorical dates this photo as c. 1955

Detroit Historical also has a c. 1975 photo that shows both the old and new buildings, a c 1955 photo of some turbines, a 1924 photo showing just three roof-mounted smokestacks and another photo of the 1924 view.

The long conveyor allows them to use a more efficient train unloading facility than they had in the middle of the 20th Century. The eastern NYC route was the Michigan Central whereas the western route was the LS&MS. D&TSL stands for the Detroit and Toledo Shore Line. It is now owned by CN. NYC combined their LS&MS and MC routes so that the MC route carries geographically northbound traffic while the LS&MS route carries southbound traffic. The B&O had trackage rights on this shared route. Today, the shared route is owned by CRSA (Conrail Shared Assets, that is, both NS and CSX.) If you look at a satellite map, CN no longer has access to this plant.

1952 Wyandotte and 1942 Rockwood Quads @ 1:24,000

They can't just blow these smokestacks up like they do at most power plants because they sealed an asbestos liner in the stacks. [encasement] I wonder if that sealing will make it even harder to safely removed the asbestos.

A challenge for power plant operators is to make sure that the only fires on the property are in the boilers. On Apr 19, 2022, two crews of firefighters fought an underground fire in a conveyor belt area for 4.5 hours. It was small, and there were no injuries. [audacy]

2 of 7 photos posted by Andrew Dean Detroit with the comment: "Sam Laud unloading stone at the Trenton Edison Plant. G-Tugs Pennsylvania and Wisconsin wait alongside to assist them back to the main River. The stone is being used to fill some areas to prep for the demolition-from my understanding- I have no official information on the demolition of the building or what the stone / gravel is being used for."

David Malcolm: It's to cover the coal left on the ground.

Andrew Russell: David Malcolm I wondered that since they seemed to be smoothing it around as it fell, what will they do with the small coal piles leftover in the back there?

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