Gibson Generating Station


The Gibson Generating Station is a coal-burning power plant located at the northernmost end of Montgomery Township, Gibson County, Indiana, United States. It is close to the Wabash River, 1.5 miles southeast of Mount Carmel, Illinois, 2 miles south of the mouth of the Patoka River, and 4 miles south of the mouth of the White River. The closest Indiana communities are Owensville 7.5 miles to the southeast of the plant, and Princeton, 10.5 miles to the east. With a 2013 aggregate output capacity among its five units of 3,345 megawatts, it is the largest power plant run by Duke Energy, the tenth-largest electrical plant in the United States, With the reduction of Nanticoke Generating Station, it became the largest coal power plant in North America by generated power late in 2012. Also on the grounds of the facility is a large man-made lake called Gibson Lake which is used as a cooling pond for the plant. Neighboring the plant is a Duke-owned, publicly accessible access point to the Wabash River near a small island that acts as a wildlife preserve. This is the nearest boat-ramp to Mount Carmel on the Indiana side of the river. Located immediately south of Gibson Lake, the plant's cooling pond, is the Cane Ridge National Wildlife Refuge, the newest unit of the Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge and Management Area. Opened in August 2006, this area serves as a nesting ground for the least tern, a rare bird. Cane Ridge NWR is reportedly the easternmost nesting ground for the bird in the U.S. The Gibson Generating Station is connected to the power grid via five 345 kV and one 138 kV transmission lines to 79 Indiana counties including the Indianapolis area and a sixth 345 kV line running from GGS to Evansville and Henderson, owned by Vectren and Kenergy.

History

Gibson Generating Station was originally built as a two-unit coal-fired power plant in 1972 by Public Service Indiana with initial plans to build 8 units. The 1970s saw the addition of Units 3, 4. But environmental regulations prevented any additional units and only 5 was constructed in 1982 with only two more stacks added. In the 1990s, number 4 was separated from number 3's stack and each was given its own stack while 1 and 2 continued to share a stack.
Cinergy took over PSI in 1995. After the merger, all five units were fitted with new Selective catalytic reduction equipment, mounted on the back of each unit. During this construction, one of the largest cranes in the world was erected at Gibson Station. Despite this the station only had 4 stacks for 5 units. Units 1 & 2 still shared a two flue stack and Unit 3 was still using the old 3 & 4 stack.
Duke Energy took over Cinergy in May, 2006.

Changes and Upgrades

A new common stack with independent flues was constructed for units 1 & 2 and a single new stack was built for unit 3 as part of installation of wet FGD systems on these units. In 2017 the abandoned stacks were demolished leaving four standing.
A series of SCR units have been installed to decrease its NOx emissions, these improvements were completed in 2008 with Unit 5 being the last.
Wet FGD systems have been retrofitted to units 1-4. The station is fully scrubbed.

Unit information

Earthquake effects

At 4:37:00am CDT on April 18, 2008, a 5.4 earthquake rocked the area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII. The epicenter was located northwest of the station in nearby Wabash County, Illinois. Some minor damage was recorded but the only visible effect was that Gibson Generating Station's Unit 4 deactivated itself because of its vibration detectors.

Environmental concerns