Dickerson generating station (Maryland)

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The Dickerson Generating Station is a 853 MW electric generating plant owned by Mirant Services LLC which is located approximately one mile east of Dickerson, Maryland. The facility consists of three 182 MW coal-fired steam generating plants, two 147 MW gas and oil-fired simple cycle combustion turbines, and one 13 MW black start and peaking turbine. The three coal-fired units are base-loaded and went into operation in 1959, 1960, and 1962 respectively. Condensor cooling for these units is accomplished with once-through cooling water from the Potomac River at a rate of up to 400 million gallons per day. The two combustion turbines are General Electric Frame 7F gas turbines which went into operation in 1992 and 1993, and are normally fired with natural gas from a Consolidated Natural Gas company pipeline which traverses the Dickerson site.^[1]

Coal is delivered to the Dickerson Generating Station by CSX Transportation train. The Montgomery County resource recovery facility, a 56 MW plant which burns municipal garbage and waste is located near the Dickerson Generating Station. The county generating plant is also served by the CSX rail line, which delivers trash from a central collection center to the plant.

All of the generating plants at the Dickerson Generating Station were built by the Potomac Electric Power Company, which sold them to the Southern Company in December 2000 as a result of the restructuring of the electricity generating industry in Maryland. The station was included in the spin-off from the Southern Company of Mirant in April 2001, which has since operated and maintained the plant.

The Dickerson Generating Station is dispatched by the PJM Interconnection regional transmission organization.

[edit] References

[edit] External Links

• Mirant Dickerson Generating Station webpage]