Big Rivers Electric Corporation and KYMEA entered into a ten-year power supply contract for firm capacity and energy. The contract entitles KYMEA to 100 megawatts (MW) of base capacity, plus associated planning reserves, sourced from the Big Rivers generating fleet. Service under the contract commenced on May 1, 2019. Pictured is BREC’s
D.B. Wilson power plant, located in western Kentucky, a single-unit, 417 MW subcritical coal-fired steam power plant. The plant reached commercial operation in September 1984.
Big Rivers monitors the reliability of their coal-fired generating fleet using several standard industry metrics. This allows them to proactively manage those assets and to economically operate with a focus on performance and reliability. These key performance indicators include:
Big Rivers uses generator availability data from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to determine EFOR for their generating units and to compare reliability against other utilities. Big Rivers also uses Navigant Consulting to compare plant reliability against similar units across the country. The reliability statistics demonstrate outstanding performance. In a five-year benchmarking study completed in 2016, for the period from 2011 through 2015, Big Rivers’ fleet (capacity weighted) performed in the best quartile.
In 2015, Navigant recognized Wilson Station as the Runner-Up with the GKS Fossil Plant Operational Excellence Award in the medium plant category when compared to its peers, which includes generating stations with units with a generating output between 301 and 600 MW.