Fluor provided engineering, procurement, construction, training, and commissioning services to Reliant Energy for the Seward coal-fired plant. The plant is constructed on the site of an 82-year old, coal-fired power plant retired and demolished in 2003.
Seward is the largest waste coal-fired generating plant in the world and uses low-grade refuse from coalmines, abundant in western Pennsylvania, as fuel.
Additional key components of the project were the removal and remediation of a large number of coal refuse piles that contribute to the degradation of the Kiski-Conemaugh watershed and the elimination of the existing large thermal load on the Conemaugh River.
The Seward plant became operational in 2004 and uses 11,000 tons of waste coal per day. Fluid bed construction is employed at the plant, a clean-coal technology that burns waste coal to produce steam and electricity, while meeting strict environmental requirements.
Construction peaked at 2,000 workers and provided an estimated $130 million in wages and benefits to the local economy.
The Seward Plant was named 2004 Plant of the Year by Platt's POWER magazine.