Elm Road Generating Station

Coal is beginning once again to dominate the U.S. market for new electricity generation, and Bechtel is playing a major role on the Elm Road Generating Station project in eastern Wisconsin.

Working for Wisconsin Energy, Bechtel is constructing two coal-fired steam-turbine generating units and related civil works next to the existing Oak Creek power plant on the west shore of Lake Michigan. The expansion--Bechtel's largest lump sum project ever--will provide enough energy to power more than 1 million households.

The first unit is on track to begin operation in 2009; the second will follow in 2010. And at a value of $2.15 billion, it’s the biggest lump-sum turnkey project in Bechtel’s history.

Elm Road will be among the most efficient coal-fired power plants in the world, in part because of its innovative cooling system. Rather than using cooling towers, in which water recirculates from condensers to the cooling tower and back, sending heat into the air, Elm Road will use a more efficient “once-through” cooling technology. A tunnel 9,200 feet (2,800 meters) long and 26 feet (eight meters) in diameter will carry water from Lake Michigan into the plant’s condensers and then back to the lake, carrying the heat from the turbine exhaust with it (see Detail Design).