Written by: Claire Dalton, Social Media Community Manager
With the ever-changing landscape of power generation—not
only in our state—but nationally as well, IPL is planning for a future that
includes increased diversification of generation resources and cleaner, more efficient
options right here in the heart of Indianapolis to better meet the needs of its
customers and to comply with current and future environmental rules.
This project, along with IPL's future plans, will significantly reduce dependence on coal, making natural gas IPL's largest source of capacity. This week marks the
end of an era for IPL’s Harding Street plant.
Since 1931, when this plant first went online, it has predominantly burned
coal. After this week, coal will be
completely eliminated as a fuel source at Harding Street. In May of 2014, IPL received approval from
the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) to convert Harding Street
Units 5 and 6 from coal to natural gas. Those units were converted at the end of
2015. Unit 7 will follow after this week
to complete the plant refueling to natural gas.
I had the chance to sit down with Kris Larson,
Harding Street Station Plant Manager, to talk shop about his role in this
change, what kind of training is required to operate new equipment and the
effects environmental laws have on the utility industry.
“It’s interesting to see how the development of the environmental laws affect the company and affect the public… and what we are doing here to comply.”
IPL
has answered the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) stringent clean-air
regulations with a number of environmentally-friendly power generation and
energy storage solutions. To learn more
about our efforts, visit our Power Generation page.
To learn more about this historic week at IPL's Harding Street Station, read our press release.
- Petersburg Generating Station–Located in Pike County, this generating station is primarily coal-fired and contains a production capacity of
1,723 megawatts (MW) of power.
- Eagle Valley Generating Station–Located in Martinsville, this generating station is primarily coal-fired and contains a production capacity of 263 MW of power. These coal
units will be retired in 2016 and replaced with a combined-cycle gas turbine, which will generate about 650 MW of electricity more efficiently and
with fewer environmental emissions.
- Georgetown Station–Located on the northwest side of Indianapolis, this station is generated via gas-fired combustion turbines and contains a production capacity of 158 MW of power.
- Harding Street Station–Located on the southwest side of Indianapolis, this generating station is completely fired by natural gas by spring of 2016 and contains a production capacity of
1,004 MW of power.
- IPL
purchases 300 MW of wind power under two long-term agreements and contracts to
purchase power from nearly 100 MW of solar facilities.
Multimedia by: Tyler Przybysz, Graphic Design Administrator
Subject Matter Expert: Kris Larson, Harding Street Plant Manager