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Electric News Releases
Structure Inside Coal Silo Partially Collapses
at Morgantown Energy Associates’ Facility
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A structure inside a 160-foot-tall
coal silo at Morgantown Energy Associates’ Beechurst Avenue power station partially
collapsed early Thursday. One employee is missing and presumed 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.
“Our main concern is the safety for the missing employee,”
said Jesse Locklar, director of the power station. Every effort is being made
to locate and rescue the employee, who may be trapped in the silo. The silo
is being stabilized so rescuers can begin their search.
Morgantown Fire Department officials evacuated the area immediately
around the silo. A structural engineer who inspected the site said the building
could suffer a total collapse and asked that the immediate area be cordoned
off for safety reasons.
Two silos for storing coal are located side-by-side on the
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 of the silos 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 160-feet tall
and 60 feet in diameter.
The MEA facility produces electricity that is sold to its
customer, Allegheny Power, and provides steam to West Virginia University. MEA
completed the facility in 1992. It has a full-time staff of 52 employees. Typically,
six or seven employees work on the night shift. The coal-fired units were shut
down. The plant is continuing to provide steam for heat to the university and
its medical center through its backup gas-fired boilers.
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.
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