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NPEP Success Story: Appalachian Power Company Clinch River Plant
Appalachian Power Company’s (APCO’s) Clinch River Plant Reduces the Amount of PCB-containing Transformer / Rectifier Sets
Clinch River Plant is located near Cleveland, Virginia and is a power plant that was commissioned in 1956. Construction was completed in 1958. The plant has three x 235 MW coal-fired generating units. Clinch River Plant is owned by a subsidiary of American Electric Power, a company entering its second century of operation. There are 123 employees at the plant.
Electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) are in place to control particulate emissions at the Clinch River Plant and are an essential component of the generation infrastructure. The ESPs depend on transformer / rectifier (T/R) sets to provide the electrostatic charge required to properly remove particulates from the unit’s exhaust stream. The Plant has voluntarily embarked on a program to remove PCB T/R sets from service over time and the 2008 progress represented a first step for the Plant.
APCO / Clinch River Plant’s NPEP Goal
APCO / Clinch River Plant joined NPEP in February 2008. The stated goal was to execute a voluntary source reduction of PCBs by switching out four of the plant’s PCB-containing T/R sets with sets containing no PCBs. Additional PCB T/R sets remain in use at the plant, and those will be removed in a subsequent year. American Electric Power, the parent company, has a plan in place to voluntarily retire all PCB T/R sets at the AEP power plants over time.
Source Reduction, Recycling, and Recovery Alternatives Considered
The alternative chosen was equipment modification and replacement. The PCB-containing T/R sets were replaced with T/R sets that utilized electrical insulating fluid that contained no PCBs.
Hurdles Faced
Staging of the crane to allow safe removal of the T/R sets and actual removal was the biggest physical challenge that was faced in accomplishing this source reduction. The removed transformers were trucked to a TSCA-licensed facility for compliant disposal.
Waste Minimization Results
Plant management committed to remove four PCB T/R sets, thereby reducing the amount of PCBs contained in the four replacement T/R sets to zero. Other PCB T/R sets remain in service and will be changed out over time. The total weight of the PCB articles removed was ~5,000 pounds. Cost for the project was $194,000 for labor, materials and TSCA-compliant disposal. A key benefit of this project is the elimination of the potential for a PCB spill and resulting remediation/clean-up from four potential sources.
Lessons Learned
Careful planning and attention to detail yielded a safe, environmentally compliant, and successful project.