Navajo Generating Station

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The Navajo Generating Station is a coal-fired power plant with a capacity of 2,250 megawatts, which is located in the Navajo Nation Reservation near the town of Page, Arizona, USA. It serves customers in Arizona, Nevada and California with electricity. In addition, the energy is used to pump a lot of 1.85 billion liters of water from the Colorado River for the Central Arizona Project to Central and Southern Arizona annually.

History of the plant

In the 1950s and 1960s originated in the southwestern United States by the growing population in the states of California, Arizona and Nevada, the need for new power plants. In addition, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation needed a major energy source for the operation of the pumps for the proposed Central Arizona Project ( CAP).

At the beginning of various power generation projects were considered. In particular, these included plans for the construction of dams Bridge Canyon and Marble Canyon on the Colorado. Due to the proximity of the dams to the Grand Canyon, however, resistance was offered, first by a coalition of environmental groups, proposed as an alternative by the National Park Service, and then clear the energetic construction of a thermal or a nuclear power plant. As a result, the proposal was withdrawn for the construction of dams and replaced by the Navajo Power Project. This consists of the Navajo Generation Station, a coal mine near Kayenta, the railway company Black Mesa and Lake Powell Railroad, which connects mine and power plant and a 1,300 km long 500 kV high- voltage grid.

The selected site is located about 10 km east of Glen Canyon Dam and about 5 km south of Lake Powell in close proximity to Lower Antelope Canyon in an area of ​​7.23 km ², which was leased from the Navajo Nation. Location factors were primarily available water for cooling and the relative proximity to the coal mine. The town of Page and U.S. Highway 89 also offered a pre-existing infrastructure, which provided a basis for the construction and operation of the project. The orders for planning and realization of the power plant were awarded to the Bechtel Corporation, the work began in April 1970. The power plant units 1, 2 and 3 were in the years 1974, 1975 and completed in 1976 at a total cost of about 650 million U.S. dollars.

Between 1977 and 1990, were based on the complement of the Clean Air Act for the protection of visibility in national parks by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Salt River Project and other services of various studies on the potential impact of emissions from the Navajo Generating Station to protect values areas created.

The studies culminated with the Winter Haze Intensive Tracer Experiment ( EROS ) and the Navajo Generating Station Visibility Study ( NGSVS ). These studies provided the result is that the control and reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions could improve the wintry visibility in the Grand Canyon between 2% and 7%. Thereupon, the EPA issued regulations that required a reduction of emissions by 70%. However, the operators and environmentalists negotiated a course of action that could connect an even higher level of environmental protection at lower cost. It was agreed that the annual average emissions of sulfur dioxide by the year 1999 should be reduced by 90 %. The EPA accepted this proposal and adapted its legislation accordingly. The power plant was equipped with flue gas desulfurization systems, whose planning began by the company Stone & Webster in 1994 and were completed for units 3, 2 ​​and 1 in the years 1997, 1998 and 1999. The total cost of the cleaning plant were at about 420 million U.S. dollars.

Due to a 2007 study on the impact of nitrogen oxides of the Clean Air Act has been supplemented by further rules. The study recommended new combustion technologies with low NOx emissions. As a result, units 3, 2 ​​and 1 of the years 2009, 2010 and 2011 were equipped with appropriate combustion systems. To this end an eight-week pause in operation during the months of February and March of the respective years was necessary in each case.