Northwestern Pennsylvania is one of the hotbeds of natural gas made cheap because of fracking. So this power plant closed because it couldn't compete with natural gas power plants.
It was the largest power plant in Pennsylvania when it closed in July 2023. [eia]
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| Jackson-Township historical preservation posted Photo from a Penelec publication showing the Homer City Generating Station located in Center Township near Homer City, Indiana County. Until its construction in the 1960s by the Pennsylvania Electric Co. (PenElec) and others, much of the property was owned by the George Family. In 1969, Units #1 and #2 began operation, while Unit #3 began operating in 1977. The site covered about 2,400 acres that also included the 1,800 acre Two Lick Reservoir, a water conservation facility which was operated by the station. On April 3, 2023 Homer City Generation announced a decision to shut down the power plant and be offline by June 2, 2023. (Photo from Joshua Shearman) Joseph Henigin: To start up an idle unit, Oil is needed to get the unit up to operating temperature. The coal has been cleaned to remove the sulfur. And is wet prior to being burned. People believe that there's smoke rolling out of those stakes when actually it's steam from the wet coal. When all the units are up and running, it provided electricity to lower parts of New York and parts of New Jersey. The cost of starting a unit up is why the plant has closed. Eventually we'll be back operating coal plants as natural gas prices continue to rise. Phil Jadlowiec posted Greg Shirey: Units 1 & 2. Picture was taken before Unit 3 was built. Paul Yankulic: Pa is gonna miss some Homer City, Hatfield Ferry, Bruce Mansfield and Cheswick when the new capacity payments hit everyone's bill. Adam Karpa: I’ve had so many good times there, shame it’s gone, 800 million into scrubbers and they shut it down 9 years later. That place was mismanaged and falling apart for YEARS. Regular 10-12 week shut downs became 3 weeks bandaid repairs and it just got worse and worse. Taking old parts from one unit and putting them on the other, using rtv to fix expansion joints and duct work holes. Place was owned by slumlords who extracted every cent of profit and mothballed if |
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| gem |
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| Jackson-Township historical preservation posted Site of the future Homer City Generating Station located in Center Township near Homer City, Indiana County on November 11, 1966. Until its construction in the 1960s by the Pennsylvania Electric Co. (PenElec) and others, much of the property was owned by the George Family. In 1969, Units #1 and #2 began operation, while Unit #3 began operating in 1977. The site covered about 2,400 acres that also included the 1,800 acre Two Lick Reservoir, a water conservation facility which was operated by the station. On April 3, 2023 Homer City Generation announced a decision to shut down the power plant and be offline by June 2, 2023. (Photo from Joshua Shearman) |
Power plant
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| Street View, Oct 2023 |
The smokestacks are the "tallest in America." A private equity firm has owned it since 2017. Their only interest was milking money from the plant, so they cut payroll and quit maintaining the plant. They provided just a 90-day notice to the employees and community that they were pulling the plug on the plant. [CapitalAndMain]
Coal mine? I have not been able to find confirmation that this plant had its own coal mine. Since this is in Pennsylvania, it makes sense that it had a mine.
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| Street View, Oct 2023 |
I think this is a coal mine because I could not find a railroad and because this is a lot of equipment for coal handling.
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| Satellite |
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