New WPS coal plant produces electricity
An article by Richard Ryman from the Green Bay Press-Gazette:
Wisconsin Public Service Corp.’s new coal-fired power plant near Wausau produced its first electricity Thursday [March 20].The power plant is in the start-up and testing phase, but produced 18 megawatts of electricity when it was brought up to full speed and connected to the transmission grid Thursday night.Start up and testing will take about two more months, after which the plant will be put into service, the company said.
Construction on the 583-megawatt plant began in October 2004.
From a press release issued by Wisconsin Public Service:
Wausau, Wis. — The newly constructed Weston 4 Power Plant has produced its first megawatt of electricity to power businesses and homes in Wisconsin. During the normal routine start-up procedure, the steam turbine electrical generator was slowly ramped up to full speed; then the generator switch allowed the initial megawatt (1,000 watts) to connect to the existing electrical transmission system. The new generator produced about 18 megawatts at 7:22 p.m. on Thursday, March 20, 2008, and was kept on line for about 30 minutes in its initial start up.
The new power plant is still in the start-up and testing mode and will be for another two months, according to Kelly Zagrzebski of Wisconsin Public Service.
For the first time, the 583-megawatt generator’s initial output was transferred to the new electrical substation on the power plant site and loaded onto the existing electrical system.
