Stacks of Power

Stacks of Power. . In the early 1950s, fifteen investor-owned utility companies operating in the Ohio Valley joined to form the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation and its wholly owned subsidiary Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corporation (IKEC). Until 2005, the IKEC's Clifty Creek Powerplant was unique in that it had only one primary customer, the Portsmouth Area Uranium-Enrichment Complex of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) at Piketon, Ohio. The utility company has been a steady employer in the region since the Clifty Creek Plant began operation in 1955., Energy at the Clifty Creek Plant is created by steam turbines using water from the Ohio River. Barges bring coal – 4.5 million tons per year – to the plant, where it is unloaded and fed to the 6 giant boilers, each of which holds 52,000 gallons of water. Each day, 1.4 billion gallons of Ohio River water are cycled through the plant while generating enough electricity to power a city of one million people., As constructed, between 1953 and 1956, the plant's complex included three 683 foot stacks visible for miles. In 1978-1979 those stacks were replaced by two taller and more efficient stacks towering at 985 feet. They are 77 feet in diameter at their base and 34 feet at the top. They were built in conjunction with new electrostatic precipitators to remove particulate matter from the flue gas. Since its original construction at a cost of $158 million, the Clifty Creek Plant has spent over $360 million on environmental upgrades., The construction of scrubbers to remove harmful emissions is to be completed by 2010 at a cost of $460 million., By the Way: The ash created by the burning of coal at the plant is recycled and sold to concrete manufacturers.