High Bridge Plant

Location: On the Mississippi River near downtown St. Paul, Minnesota.

Plant Description: High Bridge is a four-unit coal-fired generating plant. Two units produce steam only to serve a nearby paper manufacturing facility. The other two are base load units, typically generating electricity seven days a week.

Power Production Capability: (In service dates) 267 megawatts (MW): Unit 5 – 95 MW (1956) and Unit 6 – 172 MW (1959)

Fuel Sources: Low-sulfur western coal ()

Plant History: Built in 1923, the High Bridge plant, along with the Riverside plant in Minneapolis, once formed the hub of Northern States Power Company, a predecessor to Xcel Energy. While power from other plants went into the system’s electric grid, High Bridge was equipped with substation controls that could distribute power directly to the city of St. Paul. Two original units went into service in 1924. Two more units, almost twice the size of the first two, were added in 1942 and 1944. Units 5 and 6, which were progressively larger, began operating in 1956 and 1959. While the four oldest units have since been retired from electric service, two boilers provide process steam to a St. Paul paper manufacturer through a 5-mile steam line, constructed in 1983.

Interesting Features: High Bridge gets its name from the bridge that crosses the Mississippi River just yards from the plant. The original bridge, constructed in 1889, was rebuilt in 1985. The plant site once was home to early residents of St. Paul – many of them immigrants, who settled in shanty towns along the river. St. Paul is host for the nation’s biggest winter celebration, and in 1986 the largest ice palace ever built during the St. Paul Winter Carnival – constructed just down river of High Bridge – captured worldwide attention. Xcel Energy employees regularly participate in the festival and some have served on the winter pageant’s royal court.

Environmental Highlights: The plant’s use of western coal limits sulfur emissions and High Bridge employs electrostatic precipitators that trap ash particles before they go up the stack. Precipitators act on the principle of static electricity attracting dust. In this case, the dust is fly ash particles. Fly ash in exhaust gases passes through an electric field, where the particles receive a negative charge. Positively charged plates attract and collect the negatively charged ash particles. Almost all of the ash that’s captured is used for construction purposes in concrete and road base material.

High Bridge is participating with several other Xcel Energy plants in a successful peregrine falcon restoration effort in which nest boxes are placed on tall stacks. High Bridge also has been a major sponsor and participant of a Mississippi riverfront greening project in downtown St. Paul that involved the planting of hundreds of trees and shrubs. In addition, the plant is a sponsor of the Birding Boat, a riverboat that takes area students up and down a section of the Mississippi River in search of birds, while educators share environmental curriculum and river history.

Community Involvement: Located in the heart of downtown St. Paul, High Bridge and its employees are very active in the community. Employees deliver Meals on Wheels, volunteer at local schools, participate in the city’s annual cleanup of Cherokee Park across the river from the plant, and support United Way and other community organizations.

Contact Information:

• Plant Information and Tour Requests — 1-800-895-4999
• Media Inquiries — 612-215-5300