Homer City Generating Station

The station is located in Center Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, occupying approximately {{convert|2400|acre|km2}}. The site also includes the {{convert|1800|acre|km2|adj=on}} Two Lick Reservoir, a water conservation facility which is operated by the station.

Image:HCGeneratingCoolingTowers.JPG

From there, the Black Lick enters the Conemaugh River, which goes on to meet the Loyalhanna River, creating the Kiskiminetas River, before entering the Allegheny River.

File:KBTP to KAOO trip 20241027 12.jpg

Constructed in the 1960s by the Pennsylvania Electric Co. (PenElec) and others.{{citation needed|reason=needs expansion|date=March 2025}} In 1969, Units #1 and #2 began operation, while Unit #3 began operating in 1977.

Six workers were injured on February 10, 2011, when a six-inch, high-pressure steam pipe in Unit 1 ruptured and caused an explosion on the sixth floor of a building. Three of the men were airlifted to the Western Pennsylvania Hospital burn center, and three were treated locally. The incident was investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.{{Cite news |date=February 16, 2011 |title=Steam Pipe Rupture at Pa. Power Plant Injures 6 |work=Power |url=https://www.powermag.com/steam-pipe-rupture-at-pa-power-plant-injures-6/ |url-status=live |access-date=April 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210802155822/https://www.powermag.com/steam-pipe-rupture-at-pa-power-plant-injures-6/ |archive-date=August 2, 2021}}{{Cite news |date=February 10, 2011 |title=Officials: 6 Hurt In Homer City Explosion |publisher=KDKA-TV |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/homer-city-power-plant-explosion-fire/ |access-date=April 8, 2023}}

In 2001, affiliates of General Electric bought the plant from Edison International, and subsequently leased it back to them. In 2011, Edison failed to secure financing to add pollution-control devices and announced plans to transfer full control to General Electric. On February 29, 2012, Edison took a $1 billion impairment charge related to the Homer City plant and several other coal-fired power plants. At the end of 2012 full control of the plant was transferred back to General Electric, which hired an NRG affiliate to operate it.{{cite web

| title = Town Hopes to Keep Tower of Coal Power

| work = The Wall Street Journal

| publisher = News Corp.

| year = 2012

| url = https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203961204577269773461053132

| access-date = 2012-03-14

| archive-date = 2021-12-12

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211212011026/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203961204577269773461053132

| url-status = live

}}

In early 2017, the plant filed for bankruptcy protection.{{cite news|last1=Kummer|first1=Frank|title=Trump or not, Pa. coal plants have long been on the way out|url=http://www.philly.com/philly/health/Trump-environmental-rollback-likely-too-late-for-not-Pennsylvania-coal-plants.html|access-date=3 April 2017|publisher=Philly.com|date=28 March 2017|archive-date=3 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403120455/http://www.philly.com/philly/health/Trump-environmental-rollback-likely-too-late-for-not-Pennsylvania-coal-plants.html|url-status=live}}

In early 2022 the facility's owners announced that they were considering deactivating some of its units.{{Cite news|date=2022-02-15|title=Homer City coal-fired power plant owners say they may deactivate units|url=https://www.wpxi.com/news/business/homer-city-coal-fired-power-plant-owners-say-they-may-deactivate-units/563WQEEJQBFGTLFZFTMJSXY2J4/|access-date=2022-02-24|publisher=WPXI}} The owners initially decided to continue operation,{{Cite news |last=Hurst |first=David |date=April 5, 2022 |title=Homer City power plant will remain at full operation |work=The Tribune-Democrat |url=https://www.tribdem.com/news/local_news/homer-city-power-plant-will-remain-at-full-operation/article_9f0e8ae8-b4e6-11ec-9510-6f084759b709.html |url-status=live |access-date=April 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220430064108/https://www.tribdem.com/news/local_news/homer-city-power-plant-will-remain-at-full-operation/article_9f0e8ae8-b4e6-11ec-9510-6f084759b709.html |archive-date=April 30, 2022}} but on April 3, 2023 Homer City Generation announced a decision to shut down the power plant and be offline by June 2, 2023.

The power plant was permanently decommissioned on July 1, 2023.{{Cite web |date=2023-06-16 |title=Pennsylvania's largest coal plant, and one of its largest polluters, to shut down |url=https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2023/06/16/pennsylvanias-largest-coal-plant-and-one-of-its-largest-polluters-to-shut-down/ |access-date=2023-07-06 |website=StateImpact Pennsylvania |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=PJM - Generation Deactivations |url=https://www.pjm.com/planning/services-requests/gen-deactivations |access-date=2023-07-06 |website=www.pjm.com}} On the morning of March 22, 2025 the chimneys were demolished via explosives.{{Cite news |last=Ingram |first=Sheldon |date=2025-03-22 |title=Demolition at former Homer City Generating Station |url=https://www.wtae.com/article/pennsylvania-demolition-homer-city-stacks/64257828 |access-date=2025-03-22 |work=WTAE |language=en}}

The plant was a major polluter, ranking highly both nationally and within the state; Pennsylvania has ranked it the #2 polluter in the state. Like other coal fired power plants of this scale, Homer City Generating Station released huge amounts of carbon dioxide as well as mercury, sulfur dioxide, and other toxic or damaging chemicals. Pollution control equipment was added in 1998 to reduce mercury output. In 2012, General Electric had scrubbers installed to further reduce the plant's emissions.

• According to the American environmental activist group Environmental Working Group, Homer City Generating Station produced a total of {{convert|2963|lb|kg}} of mercury in 1998 alone.

According to Public Citizen: "The plant ranks #33 in the nation for total CO₂ emissions, contributing 13,745,174 tons of the pollutant primarily responsible for global warming to our atmosphere." The organization Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA) reported in 2007 that this plant emitted 12,800,000 tons of CO₂ and also ranked the facility as 33rd largest CO₂ emitter in the United States.

• In 1995, Homer City discharged {{convert|127383|lb|metric ton}} of SO₂.
• In 2003, Homer City discharged {{convert|151262|lb|metric ton}} of SO₂ and was ranked the fourth-largest SO₂ polluter in the nation.
• In 2005, the facility was ranked as the nation's sixth-highest SO₂ polluter as it discharged 119,771 pounds (54.327 metric tons) of SO₂ that year.{{Cite web|url=http://www3.cec.org/islandora/en/item/10236-north-american-power-plant-air-emissions-en.pdf|title=10236-north-american-power-plant-emissions-en|access-date=October 15, 2016|archive-date=December 7, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141207105722/http://www3.cec.org/islandora/en/item/10236-north-american-power-plant-air-emissions-en.pdf|url-status=live}}

In 2007, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) fined the owners of the Homer City electricity generating station, EME Homer City Generation LP, $200,000 for violating the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law. The station exceeded its permitted effluent standards for selenium, total suspended solids, and biochemical oxygen demand in its wastewater discharges, and allowed unpermitted discharges of stormwater associated with its flue-gas desulfurization scrubbers.{{cite web| title = DEP fines Homer City generating station $200,000 for selenium discharges

| publisher = Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

| date = July 13, 2007

| url = http://www.state.pa.us/papower/cwp/view.asp?A=11&Q=465447

| access-date = 2008-08-02}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=scruuber|url=http://www.ebrahim.ir/cat/1-Scrubber|scruuber=}}

Image:Homer City Generating Station.jpg

Homer City's three coal boilers installed Selective Catalytic Reduction to reduce ozone-forming NO_x emissions in 2000 and 2001. This technology produced up to an 83% reduction in NO_x emissions in subsequent years. Since the optimum years of 2005-06, emissions have begun to creep back up towards what they were before the installation of this technology. During the summer of 2012 plant emissions of NO_x doubled over the 2005-06 period from 2,300 tons to 4,500 tons, even as electrical generation fell by 30%."Air Markets Program Data", USEPA, http://ampd.epa.gov/ampd/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004215831/http://ampd.epa.gov/ampd/ |date=2013-10-04 }} Through this same period, the price of natural gas, which competes with coal as a fuel for electrical generation, fell by some 60%.{{Cite web |url=http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n9190us3m.htm |title=U.S. Natural Gas Wellhead Price (Dollars per Thousand Cubic Feet) |access-date=2013-10-02 |archive-date=2013-10-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004230752/http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n9190us3m.htm |url-status=live }} Through the 2013 summer ozone season, this trend in rising emission rates continued resulting in over 6,300 tons of NO_x emissions in excess of what could have been achieved had the plant operated at its previously demonstrated optimum rates seen in 2005-06.

{{Noref-section|date=April 2023}}View of the power plant from [[Homer-Center High School|thumb|right|444px]]

The plant's Unit 3 had a 371 m (1,217 ft) tall chimney, which was built in 1977. This chimney was{{When|date=April 2023}} the third-tallest chimney in the world, the second-tallest in North America, and the tallest in the United States.{{Cite news |last=Carleton |first=Audrey |date=February 19, 2024 |title=Private equity squeezed a Pennsylvania coal plant dry—then dumped its workers |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/91031223/private-equity-squeezed-a-pennsylvania-coal-plant-dry-then-dumped-its-workers |work=Fast Company}} On clear days, it was possible to spot the chimney from as far south as Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and as far east as Ebensburg, Pennsylvania.

{{Portal|Pennsylvania|Energy}}

• List of largest power stations in the United States
• List of power stations in Pennsylvania

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20051109171911/http://www.theoec.org/pdfs/pressrelease/hottopics_pr_ctapotr.pdf 2005 toxic output numbers]
• [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05132/503228.stm Post Gazette article]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070524223710/http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_103122.html Pennsylvania plant rankings]

{{Supertall chimneys}}

Category:Energy infrastructure completed in 1969

Category:Energy infrastructure completed in 1977

Category:Towers completed in 1977

Category:1969 establishments in Pennsylvania

Category:2023 disestablishments in Pennsylvania

Category:Chimneys in the United States

Category:Former coal-fired power stations in the United States

Category:Coal-fired power stations in Pennsylvania

Category:Buildings and structures in Indiana County, Pennsylvania