St. Clair Power Plant

The Saint Clair Power Plant is a major coal- and oil-fired power plant owned by Detroit Edison, a subsidiary of DTE Energy. It is located in St. Clair County, Michigan, on the west bank of St. Clair River. The plant is across M-29 from the newer Belle River Power Plant in East China, Michigan. The first four units of St. Clair were built in 1953–1954. Since then, three more generating units have been added to the plant. The St. Clair Power Plant generates 1982 megawatts in total. It is Detroit Edison's second largest power producer. The power plant has a large impact on the local economy, employing about 300 workers.On August 11, 2016 a fire broke out, damaging the plant.UnitsA total of seven coal-fired boilers were ultimately built at St. Clair, although only six remain operational.Units 1–4Units 1–4 are 163 MW Babcock & Wilcox boilers tied to GE and Allis-Chalmers steam turbines. These are the four original units at St. Clair. Generating units 1–4 are St. Clair's base load units, usually running at full capacity. The flue gases from those units exit through south stack, which was erected in the late 1970s when new electrostatic precipitators were added to these units. When the plant was first built, there were four relatively short stacks, one for each unit.