Kintigh Generating Station

Part of the Kintigh Generating Station, viewed from the west.

The Kintigh Generating Station, also known as Somerset Operating Co. LLC of the Upstate New York Power Producers[1] was a 675-megawatt coal-fired power plant located in Somerset, New York, United States. The plant was owned by AES Corporation until bankruptcy. Its unit was launched into service in 1984.[2] Coal is provided to the plant via the Somerset Railroad. The waste heat is dumped into Lake Ontario, resulting in a warm-water plume visible on satellite images. The plant's 625-foot smoke stack[3] can be seen across Lake Ontario from the shores of Toronto, Pickering, Oshawa, and Ajax, Ontario. It can also be seen from points along the Niagara Escarpment, including Lockport, NY, approximately 20 miles south. Power from the plant is transferred by dual 345kV power lines on wood pylons, which run south from the plant through rural agricultural land. In Royalton, NY they split at their physical junction with the dual circuit 345-kV Niagara-to-Edic transmission line, owned by the New York Power Authority, one circuit heads west to a substation at Niagara Falls, the other heads east to Station 80 south of Rochester. This bulk electric transmission constraint, created by the Somerset plant tie-in and forcing wheeling through 230kV and 345kV transmission lines to the Homer City Coal Plant east of Pittsburgh, PA, and returning to NY at the Watercurry substation outside Elmira, will be resolved through the Empire State Line proposal approved by NY Independent System Operator (NYISO).[4]

The plant's electric power was sold in the NYISO wholesale electric markets. The plant was the last coal-fired plant remaining in operation in New York[5] and officially shut down on March 31, 2020.[6] This in effect fulfilled Governor Cuomo's pledge to phase out coal by 2020, enforced by current regulation requirements which will be in effect on December 31, 2020.[7]

  1. ^ Wolcott, Bill (2012-08-26). "AES out at Somerset plant, facility now run by Upstate Power".
  2. ^ "Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2006" (Excel). Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy. 2006. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  3. ^ [email protected], Joyce M. Miles. "Operator of now-retired Somerset Generation Station sees rebirth in power consumption". Lockport Union-Sun & Journal.
  4. ^ "Login to TransmissionHub for Transmission News, Projects and Analysis". www.transmissionhub.com. Archived from the original on 2018-12-05.
  5. ^ Barnard, Anne; March, Libby (2020-03-20). "New York's Last Coal-Fired Power Plant Is Closing". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  6. ^ "N.Y. set to close last coal plant". Energy Wire. Retrieved 2020-01-06.
  7. ^ "Revised Job Impact Statement Parts 251 and 200". Adopted Part 251, CO2 Performance Standards for Major Electric Generating Facilities, NYSDEC. Retrieved 2020-01-06.