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Jan. 21, 2001
By JOHN CHARLES ROBBINS
Staff writer
Power to the people.
That's what the J.H. Campbell Complex delivers to electric customers far and wide from its sprawling facility on the shore
of Lake Michigan.
The complex is comprised of three plants generating enough electricity to power about a million homes.
This coming week, Consumers Energy Co. will begin the second phase of a $300 million upgrade to its Campbell facility,
including new pollution control devices.
Just north of the Pigeon River the complex unfolds over some 2,000 acres in Port Sheldon Township.
About 400 acres are industrial, home to the behemoth power plant complex that dwarfs all its surroundings, even the ancient
sand dunes and forests.
As you approach the site off Croswell Street and Lakeshore Drive you notice the coal cars -- a line of loaded train cars
stretching as far as you can see, the black loads awaiting the pulverizers, bunkers and industrial boilers ahead.
The complex burns more than 4 million tons of coal each year. On a daily basis the complex burns the equivalent of 1.3
miles of loaded train cars.
Campbell's three units are operated by 310 men and women, full-time Consumers employees.
The employee headcount will more than triple in the next three months as 1,000 temporary workers converge on the complex
for the Unit 1 upgrade. Those include boilermakers, pipe fitters and teams of engineers.
The bulk of the work is designed to reduce the facility's nitrogen oxide emissions. Nitrogen oxide, also known as NOx,
is a compound that contributes to the formation of smog and greenhouses gases.
The upgrades, which began last fall and will last through 2003, include the installation of new equipment that will burn
coal at a lower temperature, and installing catalytic equipment to further reduce NOx.
It's the most significant upgrade to the facility in its nearly 40-year history, and is being done in large part to meet
Clean Air Act requirements which take effect in May 2004.
Inside the cavernous plant it's hot and loud. There's a lot of steel and concrete and it's nearly void of color.
Campbell is massive, hulking, and impressive.
Standing on the acres of steel grid that make up the floors of the plant -- and looking down past your shoes -- it appears
bottomless.
Standing in the turbine area you can feel the power as highly pressurized steam spins giant turbines at 3,600 rotations
per minute.
The turbines are encased in large industrial cocoons, but their velocity can be felt in the whirring low hum of the vibrating
floor.
The turbines connect to electric generators the size of a tractor trailer rig.
The electricity is then put out on the company's far-reaching electrical grid covering all 68 counties in the Lower Peninsula.
Juice from the Campbell facility could be going to a light switch in Borculo or powering a hair dryer in Prudenville.
The grid delivers the power where it's needed.
The complex is an odd mixture of old and new, of low-tech and high-tech.
"We're basically just boiling water here," said Dennis McKee, Campbell's communications director.
"Frankly, this is stone age technology. Nuclear plants are high technology. Coal plants are not. We're burning trees
that are a million years old, that have turned to coal, as our fuel ... it's real simple stuff," said McKee.
From the stone age to the digital age, from the Flintstones to the Jetsons, it's all a part of Campbell.
While the burning of coal is an old practice, the computer age is now watching over the power making complex.
The control room, the nerve center of the facility, is also getting a major renovation.
The antiquated control room with wall-sized panels covered in gauges, switches and red and green lights is being replaced
with state-of-the-art digital equipment.
The new computerized control area resembles the bridge on the starship Voyager from " Star Trek" fame.
Consumers' employees teamed up with computer experts at Westinghouse to custom design the new software used in the control
room.
This is part of the company's additional productivity and efficiency improvements, according to Campbell General Manager
Bill Ritchie.
Vibration, heat, pressure, emissions and more are controlled and monitored by the new digital system.
"It's a huge step for the people that operate the plant, and I'm extremely proud of their diligence and efforts,"
Ritchie said.
The switch came in mid-December when control room operators had about 24 hours to use the computerized system before it
went on-line for Unit 2.
"Those guys have made a huge change without missing a beat. That's a real compliment to the type of workforce we
have," Ritchie said.
Ritchie praised the other plant employees as well, calling the progress made a team effort.
"I just couldn't be more proud (of the employees) as it relates to this big transition," Ritchie said.
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