Bull Run Fossil Plant, commonly known as Bull Run Steam Plant, is a 900-MWe

MWE

MWE may refer to:*Manufacturer's Weight Empty*McDermott Will & Emery*Midwest Express, an airline*Merowe Airport - IATA code*Multiword expressionMWe may refer to:*Megawatt electrical...

 coal-fired electric generating station

Fossil fuel power plant

A fossil-fuel power station is a power station that burns fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas or petroleum to produce electricity. Central station fossil-fuel power plants are designed on a large scale for continuous operation...

 owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority

Tennessee Valley Authority

The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected...

.

Location

Bull Run Plant is located on 750 acres (3 km²), in the Claxton

Claxton, Anderson County, Tennessee

Claxton is a community in Anderson County in the U.S. state of Tennessee.The name "Claxton" is generally applied to the unincorporated part of Anderson County south of the city of Clinton and northeast of the city of Oak Ridge, centered around the intersection of Clinton Highway with State Route 170...

 community of Anderson County, Tennessee

Anderson County, Tennessee

Anderson County is a U.S. county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2010 census, its population is 75,129. Its county seat is Clinton.It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee, Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...

, on the north bank of Bull Run Creek, directly across the Clinch River

Clinch River

The Clinch River rises in Southwest Virginia near Tazewell, Virginia and flows southwest through the Great Appalachian Valley, gathering various tributaries including the Powell River before joining the Tennessee River in East Tennessee.-Course:...

 (Melton Hill Lake

Melton Hill Dam

Melton Hill Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Clinch River just south of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. The dam is operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the early 1960s to extend the Tennessee Valley's continuous navigation channel up the Clinch as far as Clinton and to...

) from Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson and Roane counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of Knoxville. Oak Ridge's population was 27,387 at the 2000 census...

.

History

Construction began on April 2, 1962 and was completed on June 12, 1967, when the plant began commercial operation.

Units and operating parameters

The plant is the only single-generator coal-fired plant in the TVA system. The plant's winter net generating capacity is about 889 MWe

MWE

MWE may refer to:*Manufacturer's Weight Empty*McDermott Will & Emery*Midwest Express, an airline*Merowe Airport - IATA code*Multiword expressionMWe may refer to:*Megawatt electrical...

. The plant consumes 7300 short ton of coal per day, and requires 2900 metric ton of cooling water per hour. Its supercritical boiler operates at a pressure of 3650 psi (248.4 atm) and temperature of 1000 °F (537.8 °C).

Distinctions

When the generator first went into operation, it was the largest in the world (measured in terms of the volume of steam produced). Bull Run's heat rate (measure of the amount of heat used to produce a kWh of electricity) was the best of any plant in the United States in 1975, 1978, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1993, 1995, 2001, and 2004. Bull Run Fossil Plant named the most energy-efficient coal-fired power plant in the nation by Electric Light & Power magazine for calendar year 2001.

Environmental impact

In 2006, the plant ranked the 70th among the large coal-fired plants in the United States on the list of worst SO₂ polluters, having emitted 11.92 lb (5.4 kg) of sulfur dioxide

Sulfur dioxide

Sulfur dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula . It is released by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide unless the sulfur compounds are removed before burning the fuel...

 per MWh

MWH

MWH may stand for:* International Air Transport Association airport code for Grant County International Airport* MWH Global, an international water engineering consultancy* Men Without Hats, a Canadian New Wave band...

of energy produced (27,987 tons of SO₂ in 2006 altogether).