The Omaha Public Power District’s North Omaha Power Station has been recognized with the Small Plant of the Year award from the Powder River Basin (PRB) Coal Users’ Group, which honors a power plant each year for its innovation and implementation of industry best practices.  The OPPD plant will be featured in Power magazine as a Plant of the Year recipient.  Selections are made by the PRB Coal Users’ Group board of directors.

The award confirms the results of the facility’s ambitious 5-year plan to upgrade its coal handling system and clamp down on fugitive emissions to further improve safety.  “Our plant puts an extremely high value on safety,” commented Kirk Estee (P.E.), Material Handling Supervisor at OPPD.  “We have 105 employees here, and our recordable injury rate is extremely low.  We expect that they work safely, and it’s our job to ensure that each of them has a healthy and safe work environment.” 

OPPD is one of the largest publicly owned electric utilities in the United States, serving more than 350,000 customers in 13 southeast Nebraska counties.  Employing 2,300 people, the district operates over 15,500 miles of electric transmission and distribution lines.  Organized as a political subdivision of the State of Nebraska in 1946, today OPPD has a generating capacity of over 3,200 Megawatts, almost half of which is produced from coal.

Working with bulk material handling experts from Martin Engineering (Neponset, IL), the plant began the first equipment overhauls in October of 2009, with specific projects targeting upgrades to coal transfer points on twelve belts throughout the plant.  Martin Engineering conducted a detailed audit of the facility’s entire material handling system, then supplied and installed components to more effectively contain material and improve serviceability.

Extensive work was done to rebuild the stilling zones of the transfer points, replacing the aged steel construction with new, more robust components, including impact cradles, belt support, apron seal skirting and wear liners.  “Now that all the transfer points have been refurbished, it’s a night and day difference,” Estee said.

To further reduce the escape of fugitive dust, the plant specified Martin® Insertable Air Cleaners for six of the plant’s load zones and one on a crusher, ensuring that each application point was operating under adequate negative air pressure. Insertable air cleaners can eliminate many of the problems seen with central baghouse collection systems, including long runs of ducting, large enclosures, maintenance difficulties and high power consumption.

“Now that we can use the smaller equipment, we shut down two of the older central dust collectors, a design which has a history of explosion hazards,” said Estee.  “The integrated units don’t contain, capture or store large amounts of fuel.  They just have a few ounces of coal in them at any time, and they’re always purging and cleaning themselves.  From a safety standpoint, they’re great.”

The new insertable air cleaners are just one part in a larger dust mitigation strategy that includes dust containment and other fundamental practices that Martin advocates.  “Throughout our ongoing relationship, Martin has been very innovative in approaching the system upgrades,” he added.  “With our service agreement, they install the components and not only ensure that the system is working properly, but they take it upon themselves to look for issues.  Because we don’t have the time to study all the inherent challenges posed by dust control, Martin makes sure that everything is working as promised,” he concluded.

Founded in 1944, Martin Engineering is the world leader in making bulk materials handling cleaner, safer and more productive.  The company supplies flow aids and conveyor products around the world for a wide variety of bulk material applications, including coal, cement / clinker, rock / aggregate, biomass, grain, pharmaceuticals, food and other materials.  The firm is headquartered in Neponset, IL, offering manufacturing, sales and service from factory-owned

Business units in Brazil, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey, India and the UK, and under exclusive license with ESS Australia.  For more information, visit www.martin-eng.com or call (309) 852-2384.  Global representatives for Martin Engineering can be found at www.martin-eng.com/rep-finder.