New Roads, LA: Big Cajun Power Plants

#1: (Satellite)

#2: (Satellite)

#1 is a 430mw gas-fired plant. [cleco1] #2 was the first coal-fired power plant built in Louisiana with a rating of 1,708mw. [cleco2]

gem2 rates #2 as 1.9gw. I wonder why each unit got smaller. Normally, newer units are bigger. "Unit 1: 657.9 MW (1981), Unit 2: 626.0 MW (1982), Unit 3: 619.0 MW (1983)" Unit 2 was converted to a 540mw natural gas plant in 2015-16.

Power-Technology rates Cajun 2 as 1,276.9mw. The subbituminous coal comes from the Powder River Basin. I wonder where the PRB coal is transloaded to barges because, according to the satellite image, this plant can't receive coal by rail. It can use just barges on the Mississippi river. And do they transload further south in the Winter?

Greg Mallory posted
Big Cajun II in New Roads. LA. I started my career there and they were outside units. Burner decks had some sheathing. The brown metal "buildings" are roll away enclosures over the turbines. The enclosures were open and turbines exposed most of the time. Units 1 & 2 (right) were Riley Stokers, Unit 3 was a B&W (left). I was a AO & CRO on U#3 for years.
Andy Kapper: God outdoor units covered with a box, so ugly lol
Greg Mallory: Andy Kapper , they were a godsend when the temperatures where 100F outside. Enclosed units in the south are unbearable, I remember coming out from under the turbine mezzanine and walking outside to 95F and it felt like walking into a chiller! No telling how bad it would be on a enclose burner deck in the south!
Gordon Jones: how many MW?
Greg Mallory: Gordon Jones started as 540 each. I think they all have dense packs now and not sure where they’re at now. I ran them many times near 575 when load was needed.
Gordon Jones: Greg Mallory 👍….we had four Supercritical 630MW dense packs. dayton power and light JM Stuart Station.
Greg Mallory: Gordon Jones BTW, Unit #2 is now gas, converted a few years ago.

The comments on this Texas plant post indicate that outside units are cheaper to build but won't last as long.

Two of the units in #1 are steam-turbine units that went online in 1972. Two simple-cycle combustion turbine units are used for peaking power. [cleco1] In 2007, plans were "to replace two of its natural gas turbines at Big Cajun I with a 230 megawatt (MW) coal-fired unit." [gem1] It seems the Sierra Club effectively stopped those plans.

Unit 1 in Cajun 2 is scheduled for retirement in 2015. [gem2]

Street View from John James Audubon Bridge

"In September 2009, NRG announced it was replacing some coal at Big Cajun II with switchgrass and sorgham. The company said the project could eventually lead to commercial-scale biomass fuel projects as a means of dealing with potential greenhouse gas regulations." [gem2] Evidently this experiment failed because I haven't seen a more recent report of burning biomass.

GasToPowerJournal
Kurt Schroeck posted
For sale

nola (Photo by Richard Alan Hannon, The Advocate)
[The planned 2015 closure date is probably because of the 2015 wastewater regulation.[

This plant not only has a big wastewater pond, it is on a Mississippi River flood plain. I wonder if a flood has recently flowed over this land.

Satellite

The conversion of Unit 2 to gas was part of a $250m upgrade to settle an EPA suit in 2012 regarding the EPA's new regulations concerning mercury. [ens-newswire]

Kurt Schroeck posted
Cajun Electric, Big Cajun II Power Plant 1979. This was the first time I set eyes on the plant. I would later become Lead Engineer for Unit 2 start-up 600MW coal fired; 27 years old.
George K. Vaughan: We will soon be building new boilers for hydrogen collection.
Michael J. Sullivan: still running?
Kurt Schroeck: Michael J. Sullivan Yes, Unit 2 converted to gas only.