The Ewing Industrial Park in Columbia, MO has a unique power capability few can match. When I first visited the site, they said they had 80 megawatts of power. After seeing all the high voltage power transmission lines, one 345 kv, multiple 161 and 69 kv, they must be able to get more power. I told them go back to all the sources and find out how much they could get with transmission infrastructure. Why isn’t 80 megawatt enough for a data center? Because, if we want to get people to understand the available power infrastructure, we need a bigger number. A week later, they said we can get 400 megawatts.
How can you get 400 megawatts? Here is a summary of the power sources available.
In Summary, Ewing Business Park is within 50 miles of about 2500 MGW of redundant power generation capacity including Thomas Hill Coal(1153MGW), Ameren Fulton Nuclear at reform Missouri( 1159MGW), Ameren Hydro at Bagnell Dam(215 MGW), City of Columbia coal/biomass(39MGW), City of Columbia /Ameren natural gas(140MGW), and Associated natural gas(60MGW). The Ewing Site has numerous redundant feeds and suppliers to this power supply.
Thomas Hill Energy Center key to providing low-cost energy
Thomas Hill Power Plant
Plant statistics
Unit 1 - 1966 General Electric turbine
Net capacity of 180 MW
Coal burn rate of 2,325 tons/dayUnit 2 - 1969 Westinghouse turbine
Net capacity of 303 MW
Coal burn rate of 3,476 tons/dayUnit 3 - 1982 Westinghouse turbine
Net capacity of 670 MW
Coal burn rate of 8,660 tons/dayThe Thomas Hill Energy Center is comprised of three electrical generating units, built from 1966 to 1982 and totaling 1,153 megawatts, and a coal mine that is actively being reclaimed after closing in 1993.
AECI employs about 260 people at the Thomas Hill Energy Center, which has received national recognition for its efficiency and successful conversion to low-sulfur coal that significantly reduced sulfur dioxide emissions.
AECI also will achieve a system wide nitrogen oxides emission rate reduction of nearly 90 percent with completion in December 2008 of its $424 million environmental controls project at Thomas Hill to meet the Clean Air Interstate Rule.
Plant Profile
Location
The plant is located 10 miles southeast of Fulton, Missouri, in Callaway County; 25 miles northeast of Jefferson City, Missouri; 40 miles southeast of Columbia, Missouri; 100 miles west of St. Louis, Missouri; and 120 miles east of Kansas City, Missouri.
Plant Design
Standardized Nuclear Unit Power Plant System (SNUPPS), using a Westinghouse four-loop pressurized reactor and a General Electric turbine-generator.
Generating Capacity
1,190 megawatts (net)
Bagnell Dam impounds the Osage River in the U.S. state of Missouri, creating the Lake of the Ozarks. The 148-foot (45 m) tall concrete gravity dam was built by the Union Electric Company (now AmerenUE) for the purpose of hydroelectricpower generation as its Osage Powerplant. It is 2,543 feet (775 m) long, including a 520-foot (160 m) long spillway and a 511-foot (156 m) long power station. The facility with eight generators has a maximum capacity of 215 megawatts.
Here is more information about the site providing the Ewing Industrial Park engineering team.
The background on the availability is actually quite simple. Ewing Business Park is served electric by the city of Columbia Missouri. They are a member of MISO which is the Midwest independent transmission service operator. The city has purchase/supply transmission agreements with Associated Electric and Ameren. The city also generates some of their own power. Currently Ewing Business park is bisected by a 345 kV line, and served by Numerous 161 kV lines, and numerous 69kV lines. Ewing business Park is directly adjacent to a large city owned regional substation called the Bolstad Sub station. The city has indicted that the Bolstad could serve immediate 100 MGW right now to the Ewing Park with their own infrastructure and purchase arrangements up to 200 MGW if planned. There are 4 other regional substations owned by the City and Central Electric ranging from ½ mile to 4 miles. These substations are tapped to ameren feeders in some cases. This Bolstad substation is directly adjacent to a 140 MGW natural gas fired power plant. (1) This power plant is referred to as the Columbia Energy Center or CEC. This power plant is currently operated as peaking plant that can fire up to 90% capacity quickly. The ownership of this plant is the city of Columbia and Ameren energy. The city has taken the recent steps to acquire total remaining ownership of the power plant. The city has a 39 MGW coal/wood biomass fired plant about 5 miles away. (2) . Associated Electric has a large Coal fired power plant just 40 miles away. It is a 1153 MGW coal fired facility. The Bolstad connection to this power plant is a direct 161 kV transmission line with no other taps. This line is 50 % owned by the city of Columbia and 50% by Central Electric (the wholesale transmission provider for associated). Todd Culley with Boone Electric and Ralph Schulte with Central Electric stated that Associated can serve “ 200 MGW without a phone call to the city of Columbia Ewing site ”. They said they could easily provide 400 MGW with some notice. (3)
Let me further explain
In addition to this transmission line directly from Thomas hill, there is another redundant 161 kV line that comes from the Kingdom city Substation 16 miles away which is directly fed by the Thomas Hill 345 kV line that serves that Kingdom City Substation. In addition, to these two large independent transmission line feeders, Thomas Hill has another independent 69 kV transmission line that comes from the power plant that serves the city and Ewing from the large Prathersville substation that is 2 miles away from Ewing. (4) Associated has a natural gas fired power plant Called the Chamois Plant ( 60 MGW) about 40 miles away. It feeds Columbia by way of one 161 kV line and 2 -69 kV lines. All but one of these lines land at the Central/ Columbia Boone Sub on the south side of Columbia. This sub is about 12 miles from Ewing but the interesting thing is that the City has a 161 kV and a 69kV that both run around the east side of town and come to the Bolstad Substation directly from this Main transmission Tap. (5) From the Chamois plant the independent pathway 161 kV hits the Same Boone sub but from an independent pathway from the east.
Ameren UE has the 345 kV line that bisects Ewing. It does not have a substation off of it at Ewing but lands on the west side of Columbia at the Overton Substation about 19 miles away. There are 161 kV and 69 kV lines that then extend to Bolstad that are considered independent feeders. Ameren Would not state their capcity to serve publically from this line but currently they did say they could serve 200 MGW easily from the 345 kV line. (6) Ameren has Bagnell dam hydro electric power plant 50 miles away. It is rated at 215 MGW. The main services form this plant are through Associated’s 69kV line and Ameren’s 161 kV line that also goes to the overton sub.(7) Ameren has a Nuclear Power Plant 30 miles away at Fulton mo. . It is 1159 MGW. Bolstad serves the Fulton area by a direct 69 kV line. (8).