|
|
Coal loading at Black Dog Power PlantCoal loading near the Black Dog Power Plant.
|
|
Northern States PowerNSP east of Savage, photo 1957.
|
|
Black Dog Power PlantNorthern States Power Company - Black Dog Power Plant.
|
|
NSP leases land for wildlife refuge 1982July 12, 1982 Burnsville Current reports:
NSP has agreed to lease 1500 acres of land near the Black Dog Power Plant in Burnsville to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The agreement, which includes Black Dog Lake, will include habitat management to protect and increase the area's animals and plants...
|
|
Black Dog Power Plant stack coming down 2019Michael Hazen's photo of the Black Dog Power Plant, October 2019.
|
|
Black Dog Power PlantBlack Dog Power Plant, compliments of Mitch McLaughin.
July, 2019
Crews have begun removing 7-by-7-foot chunks of concrete and rebar from a 600-foot-tall coal chimney in Burnsville as part of Xcel Energy's transition away from coal-fired power.
The Black Dog power plant started burning coal in the 1950s. It arrived by train, and the tall chimney was needed to disperse pollutants to minimize the risk to people living nearby.
But Xcel stopped burning coal at the plant in 2015 as part of its larger transition away from coal, in part to address the greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change.
|
|
Black Dog Power PlantBlack Dog Power Plant compliments of Mitch McLaughin.
July, 2019 - Crews have begun removing 7-by-7-foot chunks of concrete and rebar from a 600-foot-tall coal chimney in Burnsville as part of Xcel Energy's transition away from coal-fired power.
The Black Dog power plant started burning coal in the 1950s. It arrived by train, and the tall chimney was needed to disperse pollutants to minimize the risk to people living nearby.
But Xcel stopped burning coal at the plant in 2015 as part of its larger transition away from coal, in part to address the greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change.
|
|
Black Dog Power Plant.Black Dog Power Plant, compliments of Mitch McLaughlin.
|
|
NSP Flood of 1965Special issue of NSP News documenting the 1965 flood in NSP districts, including the Burnsville Black Dog Power Plant
|
|
Black Dog Power Plant.Black Dog Power Plant from Eagan view, compliments of Mitch McLaughlin.
|
|
NSP leases land for wildlife refuge 1982July 15, 1982 Minneapolis Star Tribune: Black Dog lake area is leased as wildlife refuge.
|
|
Black Dog Power PlantBlack Dog Power Plant ad appears in the 1961 Dan Patch Days booklet.
|
|
Power plant's iconic chimney finally coming down 2019July 12, 2109 Burnsville Eagan Sun/Thisweek News by John Gessner
Xcel Energy is removing the 600-foot chimney at the Black Dog power plant in Burnsville. The chimney is a remnant of the plant’s bygone coal era.
600-foot structure is from plant’s bygone coal era
Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth Kautz has often said she uses the giant chimney at Xcel Energy’s Black Dog power plant as a visual homing device on flights back home.
She’s not the only one who might be feeling nostalgic now that the 600-foot chimney on the Minnesota River is coming down, section by section.
“We thought about retaining it for that kind of historic, iconic value,” said John Marshall, Xcel’s community relations director. “At the end of the day, it’s really about cost.
Retaining it would include a lot of maintenance costs ongoing. It’s a 600-foot chimney that’s not needed anymore, that’s not used anymore.”
More than 50 years old, the chimney is a remnant of the plant’s bygone coal era. So are the coal trains that could be heard by neighbors to the south. Built in the 1950s, the plant east of Interstate 35W is now powered by natural gas. By 2002 two of its four coal units had been converted to combined-cycle natural gas, The remaining two were retired in 2015 and replaced with a gas-fired combustion turbine.
Marshall was outside the plant on July 11 briefing the media on the chimney’s removal and Xcel’s renewable energy future. In recent years, conversion to natural gas also removed iconic chimneys at Xcel’s High Bridge plant in St. Paul and Riverside plant in Minneapolis, he noted.
“The mayor often says, ‘Every time I’m flying back in from out of town, the second I see the chimney I know I’m almost home,’ ” Marshall said. “It’s a bit nostalgic for us as well, saying farewell to the this chimney. ... But it’s time to say farewell to the chimney and look to a cleaner future for energy for Xcel.”
The company’s “bold energy vision” calls for 80 percent carbon-free energy generation by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050, Marshall said.
“Gas is a real critical component to integrate into the overall generation system,” he said. “This plant is immediate dispatchable energy. When the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining, this plant can be dispatched to ensure 24/7, 365 reliability of energy. Additionally, we are making very large investments in significant amounts of wind and solar in our system.”
The Black Dog chimney is being removed in 7-by-7-foot sections, Marshall said. Completion is expected in October.
That will leave the big coal chimneys in Becker and Oak Park Heights as the last ones standing in Xcel’s Minnesota system, he said.
|
|
Black Dog Power Plant.Black Dog Power Plant, compliments of Mitch McLaughlin.
|
|
Contractor uses remote-controlled demolition robot to demolish xcel smokestacks at Black Dog Power Plant 2019An article appearing online at forconstructionpros.com - September 30, 2019
Midwest contractor employs innovative techniques to take its business to new heights and demolish iconic smokestacks which marks the official end to the plant's coal burning days.
A 450-ton Manitowoc 2250 crane outfitted with a custom box lifts and carries the Brokk 500 during the demolition process.Brokk Inc.They went from being a skyline staple to an obsolete eyesore. Since the 1950s, the Xcel Energy Black Dog power plant smokestacks punctuated the Burnsville, MN, skyline. But the view is changing, as the iconic smokestacks are being demolished, marking the official end of the plant’s coal burning days.
In an effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, Black Dog is one of the latest U.S. power plants to convert from coal to natural gas. The process — expected to cost $100 million — began in 1999, when two units were replaced with natural gas. The most visible changes started in July 2018, when Veit & Company, a Minneapolis-based specialty contractor, utilized robotic demolition to begin the next phase of the process.
A Community Staple: Black Dog brought in coal from Wyoming’s Powder River Basin for more than 60 years, first on barges coming down the Minnesota River, which surrounds the plant, and then by railcar. Seeking to slash their carbon dioxide output, Xcel set a goal to produce 63% of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2030. During its last year burning coal — 2014 — only two of the four original units were still operational. That year, the plant was still burning 12,500 tons of coal each week, releasing in 1.9 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air, according to state data.
Black Dog isn’t the only company that has made its mark as a historical establishment. Veit boasts an even longer history of serving the region. Frank Veit founded the company in 1928, and 90 years later, it’s still family owned and operated. Vaughn A. Veit is the third-generation owner, preceded by his father, Arthur. Throughout its storied history, Veit led the way in Minnesota in terms of new, innovative equipment. The company has often been the first in the state to purchase new technology: the first CAT D8H dozer with a hydraulic ripper in 1959; the first CAT 966C articulated loader in 1963; and the first Numa down-the-hole hammer in 2002. In 2005, the company purchased its first demolition robot, a Brokk 330, and then added a Brokk 180 in 2007.
The company’s foray into remote-controlled demolition began because of a project in downtown Minneapolis: a large interior demolition job that required the purchase of a Brokk to remove floor slabs. The structure’s limited space restricted larger equipment but was more than spacious enough for the 2-ton Brokk 180 and its high power-to-weight ratio. The Veit team was able to complete the project 25% faster than they would have with hand tools alone. The versatile machines opened the door to additional demolition projects, including the kind of top-down demolition required to safely take down two of Black Dog’s smokestacks.
Brokk Veit4Veit utilized the Brokk 500 to take two of the structures down to 120 feet, bringing them within reach of a CAT 365 Ultra-High-Reach excavator that demolished the remaining portions of the smokestacks.Brokk Inc. “Our method of demolition with the Brokk remote-controlled machines is what’s gotten us these jobs,” said Ryan Olson, Veit general superintendent of demolition. “Without them, it would be an incredibly labor-intensive process, not to mention that it would put workers at risk for potential injuries.”
The right tools for the job: In the case of the Black Dog power plant, Veit’s approach began with a focus on protecting the structures around the smokestacks. Portions of the power plant facility are as close as 30 feet to the stacks, and without protection could easily be damaged by falling debris.
Olson’s team began by fabricating an enclosure over the existing pipe rack on the 300-foot smokestacks, extending the I-beam structure to support the timber protection. Then they moved in the equipment, including a 450-ton Manitowoc 2250 crane outfitted with a custom box for lifting and carrying the demolition robot.
While Veit’s Brokk 330 machines were tried, tested and proven, the contractor chose to do a rent-to-purchase option on a new Brokk 500. The machine features a reinforced design and a vertical reach of 24.3 feet as well as an impressive power-to-weight ratio.
“The Brokk 330 gave us a huge productivity jump over hand labor but upgrading to the larger Brokk 500 was a complete game changer,” Olson said. “We’re getting 30% more productivity from the 500 than from our Brokk 330.”
That productivity doesn’t just come from the larger machine size, but also the type of attachment. Breakers come standard on Brokk machines, but Veit upgraded to a pulverizer attachment a couple of years ago. The Darda 700 concrete pulverizer delivers 600 tons of crushing capacity and has wear-resistant steel alloy crusher tips and cutter blades. It is ideally suited for top-down demolition, making it a perfect fit for this project.
“The pulverizer increases productivity over a hydraulic hammer,” Olson said. “It has been a great addition and has saved us a lot of time on projects.”
Demolition from the top down: Smokestack demolition is no easy task. It requires determination, organization and extreme attention to detail.
Traditional smokestack demolition involves numerous tools and six to eight crew members who are willing to take the risk of working at dangerous heights. In a traditional manual demolition, crew members would install ring scaffolding around the smokestack, and work in 5- or 6-foot increments to hand-remove the material from the top down. Each of the two smaller, 300-foot-tall, 78-foot-circumference smokestacks had a wall thickness of 4 inches at the top and 17 inches at the bottom. The thick concrete requires more man power to demolish with handheld tools. Besides safety, there are other factors that make a remote-controlled demolition machine a much more attractive option for projects like this: lack of experienced laborers in the current workforce, the difficulty of extreme hard labor with heavy hand tools, and weather limitations such as hot, cold or windy conditions.
Opting for remote-controlled demolition allowed crews to stay out of harm’s way, while getting the work done 25% faster than they would have with handheld tools. Plus, Veit only needed a 1/3 of the workers that would typically be used on a demolition project like this.
Brokk Veit3Opting for remote-controlled demolition allowed for crews to stay out of harm’s way, while getting the work done 25% faster than they would have with handheld tools.Brokk Inc.During the demolition, the operator directed the Brokk 500 from a control room, using screens displaying the view from the machine’s three cameras to safely monitor the situation while breaking away at the two 300-foot smokestacks. Crane operators, Brokk operators and ground crew all had radio communication throughout to minimize the risk of errors.
Veit took the two structures down to 120 feet, bringing them within reach of a CAT 365 Ultra-High-Reach excavator that demolished the remaining portions of the smokestacks down to 40 feet. From that point, a CAT 336 excavator equipped with a Genesis LXP 200 Concrete Cracker completed the rest of the demolition.
Crews then started cleanup and maintenance. Veit used excavators to reach inside the smokestack and remove built-up material, such as concrete, rebar and brick. The contractor collected and transported more than 13,000 tons of debris, recycling 100% of the materials. The steel was sent to be melted down to make new products, and the concrete was hauled away to be crushed for use as base material for roads and parking lots.
Looking to the future: The entire renovation process is expected to be complete in 2019, when Veit will tackle the last — and largest — smokestack. The third structure, called the common stack, is 600-feet-tall and had a base circumference of 180 feet. The smokestack will be demolished with handheld tools down to a height of 120 feet, and then will be fully removed with the CAT 365 High-Reach. The contractor won’t use the Brokk 500 for the structure because of costs associated with requiring a much larger crane.
Once all outdated structures are removed, the plant will be fully converted to a natural gas energy provider. In 2014, the last year of coal burning, Black Dog was Minnesota’s fourth-largest carbon polluter among power plants. Once the conversion to natural gas is complete, it will have a total summer production of 496 megawatts from three gas units and 530 megawatts of capacity in the winter.
While it may be more difficult to spot Burnsville on an arrival flight to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Black Dog power plant is still on the scene in the city, providing energy to tens of thousands of residents.
|
|
Black Dog Power PlantSeptember 23, 1955 Minneapolis Star Tribune files:
You are invited to tour NSP's giant electric plant.
|
|
Black Dog Power Plant to add 100,000 kilowatt unit 1955MInneapolis Star Tribune February 6, 1955 reports:
Black Dog Power Plant, Northern State Power Company's steam electric generating plant on the Minnesota River near Cedar Avenue, will have a second 100,000 kilowatt unit added this year....
|
|
Power Plant honor a chief 1952October 12, 1952 Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Who was Black Dog, whose name is being perpetuated by the big new Northern States Power Company generating plant on the Minnesota River?
When army scouts came to Minnesota in 1819 they were greeted by a friendly Sioux Chief by that name. During the 1820;s the army built its first Fort Snelling near Black Dog's Village. The NSP plant is located approximately where the village stood...
|
|
Black Dog Power Plant.October 12, 1952 photo of the Black Dog Power Plant, Minneapolis Star Tribune.
"Next Sunday NSP will hold formal dedicatory ceremonies at 2:30 p.m....
|
|
NSP to build another power plant in the areaJanuary 4, 1951 MInneapolis Star Tribune: The first few paragraphs of the story about the plans for the Black Dog Power Plant
|
|
Black Dog Power Plant to openOctober 16, 1952 Minneapolis Star Tribune reports the Black Dog Power Plant will open "this" Sunday.
|
|
Xcel Energy seeking permission to turn Black Dog to all natural gas facility 2011March 24, 2011 the Sun Current Newspapers report: If approved, Black Dog power plant could be saying goodbye to coal within the next five years...
|
|
Black Dog Power PlantOctober, 2019 view of the Black Dog Power Plant, being removed.
Photo by Burnsville Historical Society.
Elizabeth Dunbar | MPR News
Crews have begun removing 7-by-7-foot chunks of concrete and rebar from a 600-foot-tall coal chimney in Burnsville as part of Xcel Energy's transition away from coal-fired power.
The Black Dog power plant started burning coal in the 1950s. It arrived by train, and the tall chimney was needed to disperse pollutants to minimize the risk to people living nearby.
But Xcel stopped burning coal at the plant in 2015 as part of its larger transition away from coal, in part to address the greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change....
|
|
Black Dog Power PlantAnother view of the Black Dog Power Plant, compliments of Vince Workman.
|
|
EPA comments on Northern States Power Company Black Dog Power StationJanuary, 2011 report about the Black Dog Power Station.
|
|
Xcel Energy to make over Black Dog power plant in BurnsvilleThe Minneapolis utility plans to fully convert the power station from coal to natural gas by 2016, meaning the landmark smokestack now on the site would be demolished.
Xcel Energy formally asked Minnesota regulators Tuesday for permission to retire the last two coal-burning units at its 59-year-old Black Dog power plant in Burnsville and replace them with modern natural gas turbines.
The plan would more than double the electrical output of the plant from 253 megawatts to 700 megawatts and cost about $600 million, Xcel officials said.
The utility first signaled its intent in August to convert the aging plant, a move cheered by environmentalists and public health advocates.
People won’t see quite as much coming out of the stack. The reports we get downwind from Black Dog were that people would get ash settling on their vehicles,” said Robert Moffitt, spokesman for the American Lung Association in Minnesota.
The plant, built in 1952 with a single coal-burning unit, evolved over the decades. By 1960, it had four coal units, but in 2002, two of those units were decommissioned, plant director Tom Fallgren said.
Xcel installed the first of its natural gas-burning turbines then and it used the steam exhaust from that turbine to power another turbine kept from one of the decommissioned coal units, Fallgren said.
If approved, Minneapolis-based Xcel next year would tear down the last two coal units and begin construction on a natural gas facility in 2013.
The facility would have two combustion cycle turbines to produce power. A third turbine will be fed by the steam produced by the gas-burning units, Fallgren said.
The facility would employ 300 construction workers over the project period and come online in 2016, Xcel officials said.
The Black Dog plant work is similar to the utility’s recent makeover of its High Bridge and Riverside plants in St. Paul and Minneapolis. Both were aging coal-burning plants that were torn down and replaced with cleaner burning natural gas.
|
|
Fire at Blackdog power plant injures worker 2015March 17, 2015 Minneapolis Star Tribune reports on fire at Blackdog Power Plant. Included is a photo of fire chief B. J. Jungmann.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
