Some sorely needed electrical generating capacity is on the way in Michigan, in the form of the 710-megawatt Dearborn Industrial Generation plant across the street from the Ford-Rouge and Rouge Steel complex.

CMS Energy and DTE Energy Services formed a new company to operate the natural-gas-fired plant, known as Dearborn Industrial Generation, L.L.C., which will build, own and operate the facility. The plant's construction cost is $300 million, and more than 500 Hardhats are consistently on the project.

When it is completed, Ford Motor Co. and Rouge Steel operations will have access to 400 megawatts of electricity and 1.7 million pounds per hour of steam from the plant. The remaining 310 megawatts of electricity can be put into the power grid and available for public use. That much electricity could power a city with a population of about 130,000.

Much, much work needs to be done before the power plant comes on line, which could happen in September. Duke-Fluor-Daniel is handling the powerhouse construction, Ideal Construction and subs Conti Electric and Hatzel-Buehler are handing the underground work, and Triangle Electric will be pulling cable, setting up the two substations, installing reactors and performing the tie-ins.

"This is the most complex job I've ever seen in 15 years in the trade," said Triangle Project Manager Steve Strauch. "The amount of coordination for this project is astronomical."

The new powerhouse that's under construction sits on the east side of Miller Road, while the Rouge complex it feeds is on the west side. The first major effort to link the two sites took place last September, when the trades placed a 120-foot, 340-ton trestle over Miller Road. The span was lifted complete with two 96-inch-diameter circulating water lines and a single 84-inch diameter blast furnace gas line.

In recent weeks underneath and on either side of Miller Road, the trades have been excavating and placing a total of 48 sections of six-inch conduit from the powerhouse to feed the Rouge complex. Ian Stewart of IBEW 58 and general foreman for Hatzel-Buehler, Inc. said electricians are placing conduit banks extending for a quarter mile that will contain 15 k.v., 750 mcm cable.

Strauch said the process of pulling 30,000 feet of the four-inch-diameter cable is less than a month away. He said in other parts of the electrical system serving the Rouge complex, electricians will be tying into underground wire that's at least 70 years old. "Believe it or not, it's still good," he said. "We'll be doing more testing, but so far it's help up."

The Dearborn Industrial Generation project will be fueled by approximately 100 million cubic feet per day of natural gas and blast furnace gas, a by-product of the steel-making process at nearby Rouge Steel.

The plant will utilize two high-efficiency natural gas combined cycle units with heat recovery steam generators, three blast furnace gas/natural gas boilers and one steam turbine. The addition of a 160-megawatt gas combustion turbine last year bumped up the plant's capacity from an original configuration of 550 megawatts to 710 megawatts The new facility is expected to significantly reduce air emissions compared to the output of the old powerhouse.

The 75-year old now-dead powerhouse that fed the Rouge facility caught fire and experienced a devastating explosion on Feb. 1, 1999. This replacement power plant had already been under construction for a few months when the fire occurred.

"Dearborn Industrial Generation is a major new co-generation project which represents the first significant addition of power in Michigan since 1990 and we are pleased to provide service to Rouge Steel Co. and Ford Motor Co.," said William T. McCormick, Jr., CMS Energy's chairman and chief executive officer. "The power generated in excess of Ford and Rouge Steel's needs will be available to serve Michigan's growing need for electricity and provide additional contract or merchant power on a competitive basis." 

AN ORDERLY BANK of conduit is set into place across from the new CMS Energy Powerhouse in Dearborn by Local 58 electricians Chuck McDonald (foreman), Omar Stewart, Willie Sanders, Greg Ross, general foreman Ian Stewart, and Milton Swann.