October 13, 2021

With the demand for electricity expected to remain high into next year, FE Fleet Operations is focused on maintenance and enhancements across our power plants to ensure we’re generating power when needed.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), power generation is increasingly reliant on coal because of the steadily rising cost of natural gas. Gas prices have nearly doubled in the last year to the highest levels since 2013, making coal-fired generation a more affordable alternative. Through the month of August, FirstEnergy’s Fort Martin and Harrison power stations produced nearly 228,000-megawatt hours more than was forecast in 2020. The EIA expects demand to remain high well into next year.

“We went into this year forecasting that demand would to be consistent with what we have seen over the last couple of years,” said Fort Martin Director Dan Coldren. “The forecast anticipated we place some units in reserve shutdown during spring and fall. Instead, we’ve been running at basically full capacity.”

For continued reliability, Fort Martin recently implemented a number of enhancements, including replacement of the screens that prevent debris from entering the plant’s Monongahela River cooling water intakes, and installing a new emergency diesel fire pump. Significant Unit 2 projects featured an air heater wash and work on emission control systems, including boiler Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) inspection and repair, and replacement of mercury control system modules. Work on Unit 1 included inspection and maintenance of main steam piping and control valve steam leads to the turbine, and upgrades to the gypsum conveyor, which carries this emission control system byproduct to a storage dome nearly a mile away. The gypsum is later reclaimed and used for production of drywall and wallboard for the construction industry.

“These projects signify our commitment to environmental standards as well as to safe and reliable operation,” said Mike Schneider, Fort Martin outage superintendent. “They also demonstrate our station’s ability to work as a cohesive unit to plan, coordinate and execute projects of critical importance and scope.”

Maintenance and enhancement efforts are also underway at the Eastlake plant, where an outage began early this month for testing of the Unit 3 automatic voltage regulator, which helps maintain a steady electricity output. To increase plant efficiency, workers also performed a treatment designed to remove the invasive zebra mussel shellfish that can clog the facility’s Lake Erie cooling water intakes.

In addition to reliability, Fleet Operations’ maintenance and enhancement efforts targeted safety at the Harrison plant.

When the three units at the facility briefly went offline due to work on a gas main, Plant Maintenance immediately took advantage of the situation.

“We installed new fuse holders on our switchgear,” said Maintenance Electrician Stewart Whitehair, who also serves on the plant safety committee. “That was one of the items on our Top 10 Safety List, and the full plant outage gave us a great opportunity to tackle it.”

The new style fuse holders provide greater protection for employees and can be moved to provide access that is located away from potentially energized areas.

According to Dan, the concentrated efforts at Harrison, Fort Martin and Eastlake come with an eye on the approaching cold weather. “The emphasis on maintenance and enhancements – as well as building a fuel inventory – is designed to make sure our plants are ready to meet the winter power demand,” he said.