Oklaunion Power Plant
Coal power plant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oklaunion Power Plant is a 650-megawatt (MW), coal power plant located southeast of Vernon, Texas, in Wilbarger County, Texas. Its unit is operated by American Electric Power (AEP). The plant began commercial generation in 1986.
| Oklaunion Power Plant | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Country | United States |
| Location | Wilbarger County, near Vernon, Texas |
| Coordinates | 34°4′57″N 99°10′34″W |
| Status | Decommissioned[1] |
| Commission date | 1986 |
| Decommission date | September 30th 2020 [1] |
| Owners | American Electric Power (AEP) 70% Texas Public Utility Board 18% Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority 12% |
| Operator | AEP |
| Thermal power station | |
| Primary fuel | Coal |
| Cooling source | Lake Diversion |
| Power generation | |
| Nameplate capacity | 650 MW |
History
The construction for Oklaunion began in 1982 and was commissioned by West Texas Utilities, a forerunner of AEP.[2] The plant commenced commercial generation in December 1986.[3] Initially, the coal was transported from the Rawhide Mine in Wyoming.[4] In 2017, the plant received 719,467 short tons of coal from the North Antelope Rochelle Mine by train according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).[5] The plant's cooling source came from Lake Diversion, located in Archer and Baylor County, Texas.[6]
In September 2018, AEP announced it was shutting down Oklaunion by September 2020, citing production costs and being no longer competitive in the power market.[7][8] The plant was bought by Frontier Energy, which planned to convert it to natural gas over five years.[9] In 2022, Air Products and AES Corporation announced they were to partner up to develop a $4 billion green hydrogen facility on the site of the former Oklaunion plant.[10][11][12]
