Eastlake Power Plant

Eastlake Power Plant is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by FirstEnergy near Willoughby, Ohio.

On January 26, 2012, FirstEnergy said it is permanently closing the coal plant by September 1, 2012. In May 2012, FirstEnergy said it was delaying the closing of the Eastlake Power Plant - as well as its Ashtabula Plant and Lake Shore Plant - until 2015 so that it can make upgrades to its transmission lines.

Plant Data

 * Owner/Parent Company: FirstEnergy
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 1,257 MW
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 123 MW (1953), 123 MW (1953), 123 MW (1954), 208 MW (1956), 680 MW (1972)
 * Location: 10 Erie Rd., Willoughby, OH 44095
 * GPS Coordinates: 41.674858, -81.439938
 * Coal Consumption:
 * Coal Source:
 * Number of Employees:

Proposed coal plant closures
On August 12, 2010, FirstEnergy announced it will throttle back power production at four of its smaller, coal-burning power plants, beginning in September and continuing for three-years. The company cited the lackluster economy, low demand for power, and pending federal rules tightening emission standards. The plants are the Lake Shore Plant in Cleveland, OH, all but the largest boiler at the Eastlake Power Plant in Lake County, OH, the Ashtabula Plant, and three of four boilers at the Bay Shore Plant near Toledo, OH. The largest Bay Shore unit, which burns petroleum coke from the nearby BP/Husky oil refinery, will continue operating. The four power plants have not been running flat out for some time; instead, the company has kept them in reserve, ramping up production as needed.

Altogether the power plants have a total generating capacity of 1,620 megawatts, they accounted for less than 7 percent of total production in 2009. One megawatt is 1 million watts and enough electricity to power about 800 homes. FirstEnergy said the slowdown will reduce operating costs but could force the company to write off $287 million in the value of its assets, reducing third quarter earnings by 59 cents per share.

On January 26, 2012, FirstEnergy said it is permanently closing six of its coal plants by September 1, 2012: Bay Shore Plant, Units 2-4, in Oregon, Ohio; Eastlake Power Plant in Eastlake, Ohio; Ashtabula Plant in Ashtabula, Ohio; Lake Shore Plant in Cleveland, Ohio; Armstrong Power Station in Adrian, Pennsylvania; and the R. Paul Smith Power Station in Williamsport, Maryland. The plants had served mostly as peaking or intermediate facilities.

In May 2012, FirstEnergy said it was delaying the closing of the Eastlake Power Plant - as well as its Ashtabula Plant and Lake Shore Plant - until 2015 so that it can make upgrades to its transmission lines.

Emissions Data

 * 2006 CO2 Emissions: 8,730,503 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions: 82,705 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
 * 2006 NOx Emissions: 12,731 tons
 * 2005 Mercury Emissions: 325 lb.

Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Eastlake Power Plant
In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants. Fine particle pollution consists of a complex mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Among these particles, the most dangerous are those less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and illnesses are major examples of coal's external costs, i.e. uncompensated harms inflicted upon the public at large. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. To monetize the health impact of fine particle pollution from each coal plant, Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.

Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from the Eastlake Power Plant
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011

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