WA Parish Generating Station
Fossil Power Plant From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The W.A. Parish Generating Station is a 3.65-gigawatt (3,653 MW), dual-fired power plant located near Thompsons, Texas. The station occupies a 4,664-acre site near Smithers Lake southwest of Houston in Fort Bend County and consists of two four-unit plants; one natural gas and the other coal (2,697 MW).[1] With a total installed capacity of 3,653 MW, it is the second largest conventional power station in the US, and supplies about fifteen percent of the energy in the Houston area.[2][3] NRG Energy owns and operates the plant.[1]
| W.A. Parish Generating Station | |
|---|---|
 W.A. Parish, seen from northwest of the facility | |
 | |
| Country | United States |
| Location | Thompsons, Texas |
| Coordinates | 29°28′34″N 95°38′0″W |
| Status | Operational |
| Owner | NRG Energy |
| Thermal power station | |
| Primary fuel | Coal |
| Secondary fuel | Natural gas |
| Cooling source | Smithers Lake |
| Power generation | |
| Nameplate capacity | 3,653 MW |
| External links | |
| Commons | Related media on Commons |
The Powder River Basin supplies three 115-car trainloads worth of low-sulfur coal to units 5-8 or 36,000 tons daily.[4][5]
Completed in January 2017, the post-combustion[6] Petra Nova Carbon Capture Project became largest installed on an existing power plant in the world.[7][8] The system pumped 1.6 million tons of filtered carbon dioxide (CO2) from unit 8 to the West Ranch Oil Field 82 miles away in Jackson County.[9][10] Since the system is powered by natural gas, it was originally expected to have a net effect of not releasing 785,000 tons of carbon annually.[11] The system cost approximately $1 billion,[12] but was idled from May 2020 to September 2023 due to the low price of oil during the COVID-19 pandemic.[13][14]
Adjacent to Parish Station is the natural gas Brazos Valley Power Plant owned by Calpine Energy which opened in 2003.[15]
During the 2021 Texas power crisis, Parish Station was reported to have experienced up to a 664 MW loss in generation capacity, including an 80 MW decrease in capacity early in the crisis that contributed to the need for rolling blackouts.[16]
The Unit 8 turbine, which has a generating capacity of 610 MW, caught fire the night of May 8, 2022. While there were no injuries reported during the fire,[17] a chemical exposure incident during the repairs briefly hospitalized six workers.[18] The turbine was heavily damaged and remained offline as of August 2023.[19] Unit 8 was originally expected to be repaired by May 7, 2023.[20]
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