One of Cooperative Energy’s most prominent plants has been repowered to a cleaner, more carbon-friendly use, following a five-year Morrow Repower Project.
The R.D. Morrow Sr. Generating Station, located off U.S. 11 in Purvis, recently was re-purposed with one new natural gas fired unit, replacing the previous two 200-megawatt conventional coal-fired units. With the change, there will no longer be any coal-fired generation at the site.
“The new unit is one of the most efficient units in the southeast and represents a significant reduction in the carbon footprint,” said Mark Smith, senior vice president of power generation at Cooperative Energy. “(We are) extremely excited for the commercial operation of Plant Morrow. This project has been five years in the making with planning and studies stretching back an additional six years prior to that.
“We began demolition of the original plant in 2018 and began commercial operation of the re-powered plant on March 16. This project represents a very high level of teamwork and dedication by our employees.”
The new plant is powered by Siemens 9000HL advanced-class combustion turbine technology, paired with an existing steam turbine. It uses a heat-recovery power strategy that utilizes the thermal power from the new gas turbine in existing plant thermal systems, which officials say enables the plant to achieve the efficiency of new combined-cycle plants and reduce its previous carbon footprint by half.
“Our sole purpose of existence is to serve our Member cooperatives,” Smith said. “Therefore, we are constantly looking for opportunities to improve. Moreover, the fact is that the majority of our employees are members of the cooperatives we serve. The original coal plant, which began commercial operation in 1978, reached a point where the economics were not favorable in today’s energy market.
“Through many studies, we reviewed different options for the path forward. Now, with the unit in operation, we have been able to test our theories and hypotheses. So far, the new re-powered unit has exceeded our expectations.”
Cooperative Energy employees collectively invested nearly 300,000 work hours in the Morrow Repower Project with a nearly perfect safety record, yielding more than $12 million in project savings.
In addition, rather than undergoing staff reductions, Cooperative Energy officials were able to retain all Plant Morrow employees throughout the project. Those employees helped with demolition, construction and plant conversion activities.
“The ability to retain our employees is likely the best story of the entire project and one that I absolutely enjoy telling,” Smith said. “We developed a plan to utilize the existing Plant Morrow employees in the implementation of the project.
“We did this by creating demolition, construction, commissioning, and startup packages for the employees. From day one, the employees embraced the plan and rose to meet the challenge. In many cases, the packages represented work tasks well beyond that of their normal job duties. And they performed these tasks safely, which is unprecedented in our industry.”
That is shown in the high morale and sense of pride displayed by the employees since the project wrapped up.
“For example, one of our employees brought his family to the plant, parked in the parking lot, rolled the windows down, turned the car off, and said, ‘Listen to the hum of the unit that I helped build.’” Smith said. “Stories such as this will be told for generations to come. We are not just co-workers…we are family.”
