Structure Instability Keeps Rescue Team Out of Silo at Morgantown Energy Associates’ Facility

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- A structure inside a 130-foot-tall coal silo at Morgantown Energy Associates’ Beechurst Avenue power station partially collapsed early Thursday. The instability of the tower kept a coal mine rescue team from searching for an employee who was believed to have been inside the silo when it collapsed.

The cause of the partial collapse, which occurred at about 1:30 a.m., has not been determined. The silo is used to store and blend coal for use in the station’s 66-megawatt fluidized bed generating unit.

“We brought in a rescue team from a Maryland coal mine to help us, but it was too dangerous for them to go in and search for our employee,” said Jesse Locklar, director of the power station. “We still have hope, but we are greatly challenged by the structure’s instability. We will work around the clock to make the structure stable and conduct a safe rescue operation.”

Two silos are located side-by-side on the MEA site in the middle of Morgantown. The top two-thirds of the silos carry about a two- or three-day supply of coal. The bottom third contains equipment for crushing and blending the coal before it is fed onto a conveyor and sent to the plant’s boiler. The concrete and steel silos are about 130-feet tall and 60 feet in diameter.
		View of external damage at MEA coal silo. (Click on image for a larger version.)

The MEA facility was built and placed into operation in 1992 to produce electricity for Allegheny Power and provide steam to West Virginia University. It has a full-time staff of 52 employees; six or seven employees typically work on the night shift. The plant is using natural gas to fire its boilers and provide steam for the university and its medical center.

Dominion Energy, a subsidiary of Dominion (NYSE: D), is majority owner and operator of the power station.

Dominion, headquartered in Richmond, Va., is one of the nation’s largest producers of energy, with a production capability of 2.7 trillion British Thermal Units of energy per day. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's web site at www.dom.com.