Spurlock Station

Capacity: 1,118 net megawatts
Location: Maysville, Ky.

Unit #1: 325 net megawatts
Unit #2: 525 net megawatts
Gilbert Unit #3: 268 net megawatts

Spurlock Power Station, located in Maysville, Ky., on the Ohio River, is the largest plant owned by Winchester-based East Kentucky Power Cooperative. It is named after Hugh L. Spurlock, a pioneer in founding the state’s rural electric program. The power produced at Spurlock is shipped to EKPC’s 16 member electric cooperatives, which serve about one million Kentuckians across 89 counties.

Spurlock is a three-unit, coal-fired baseload facility. Baseload means that it operates around the clock, every day of the year, working continuously to meet system demand. The first unit, producing 325 megawatts, went into operation in 1977. One megawatt powers 10,000 100-watt bulbs

A second unit, producing 525-megawatts, unit was added in 1981. These two units produce 850 net megawatts of power.

In April 2005 Spurlock dedicated a new 268-megawatt unit that uses a cutting-edge clean coal technology known as circulating fluidized bed process, or CFB. In this process, coal is mixed with limestone and burns at lower temperatures than in conventional boilers. The Gilbert Unit ranks as one of the cleanest coal-powered units in the nation and the cleanest in Kentucky.

Additionally, CFB boilers can be modified to burn alternative fuels. Spurlock is currently experimenting with burning tires, which could help solve Kentucky’s problem with discarded tires in creeks, streams and illegal dumps.

A second clean-coal unit, which will be the fourth baseload unit at the plant, is scheduled to go online for commercial operation in 2009. Each of the two clean-coal units will generate enough electricity to power the homes in 30 cities the size of Maysville.

Spurlock has consistently practiced excellent environmental stewardship. New units have been added at a cost of about $200 million to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide. Special plates connected to the boiler collect ash, a non-hazardous material that is a byproduct of burning coal, to be disposed of safely in a landfill.

We pride ourselves on providing Kentuckians low-cost, dependable power. Our purpose today is the same as it was when rural electrification began. We exist not to make money, but to improve the lives of those at the end of the line.