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Fort St. Vrain Station
Location: Plattesville, Colorado.
Plant Description: Fort St. Vrain is a natural gas-fired combined cycle plant that consists of three combustion turbines and three heat recovery steam generators that feed the plant's original steam turbine.
Power Production Capability: 737 megawatts (MW): Unit 1-302; Unit 2-142; Unit 3-144; Unit 4-149. The plant output changes with ambient temperature.
Fuel Source: Natural gas.
Plant History: Fort St. Vrain was a nuclear power plant that ceased operating in 1989, was decommissioned and re-powered as a natural gas-fired facility.
Interesting Features: Fort St. Vrain was the first commercial-scale nuclear power plant in the United States to be decommissioned. Remaining spent fuel is stored on site at an Independent Spent Fuel Storage facility owned and operated by the Department of Energy. Fort St. Vrain's successful re-powering enabled Xcel Energy to re-use approximately $60 million in assets from the plant's nuclear era to continue to generate electricity for its customers. The plant is now capable of producing more than three times the electricity it could during its history as a nuclear facility and plays a crucial role in enabling Xcel Energy to meet the growing electricity needs of its Front Range customers. Two simple cycle combustion turbines (90 MW total) located at Ft. Lupton and 37 wind turbines (26 MW total) at the Ponnequin Wind Facility are operated from Fort St. Vrain.
Environmental Highlights: Three heat recovery steam generators capture excess heat that would otherwise be vented into the atmosphere, turn it into steam and use it to power the original steam turbine. All three combustion have used the best available technology at the time of their construction to reduce emissions. The first two combustion turbines, installed in the mid 1990's, have low-NOx burners to help reduce the amount of nitrogen oxides produced through combustion. The third combustion turbine also has selective catalytic reduction technology to further reduce NOx emissions.
Community Involvement: The plant and its employees are active in the Platteville community. Visitors are encouraged to see the new Energy/Environmental Learning Center being developed at the former Visitors Center.
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