Luminant Power plans to open a new lignite mine in Freestone county east of Lake Fairfield to continue providing fuel to Big Brown Steam Electric Station.

Announcement of the new mine, for which a permit application has been filed with Texas Railroad Commission, was made at a luncheon last week at the power plant attended by area business representatives and landowners.

Luminant vice president and chief mining officer Gerry Pearson reports that permitting for the mine will take about 18 months, but after receiving TRC approval startup should be short.

The short startup time is because mining equipment and workshops are already operating at Big Brown mine and will only have to be moved a short distance, around the lake, and has only to build haul roads and ponds for water control, Pearson explains.

First step of the permit approval process is TRC conducting an initial technical review, expected to be completed in early summer.

Big Brown Mine opened to provide lignite coal to fuel the electric generating plant that went on line in 1971 and 1972. BBSES was the first major power plant burning lignite coal to start operations in Texas.

To date, more than 20,000 acres of land have been mined in Freestone county. Mining started north of Fairfield on the east side of Texas 75 and has moved to near the power plant.

About two years ago, the company was planning to close the mine, but decided to keep the operation running by seeking deposits it previously did not plan to extract.

For several years, lignite has been blended with Western Coal brought by railroad from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. The blend is currently 55 percent lignite and 45 percent Western Coal.

Benefits of the Wyoming coal are that it burns hotter and emits less sulfur.

Pearson says the decision to pursue opening a new mine is largely because of efforts of Big Brown Mine employees who, as a group, worked to extract lignite efficiently when faced with the prospect of losing their jobs.

"That speaks volumes for the character of the people here," the Luminant vice president declares.

Big Brown mine employs about 250 people and the power plant employs 143 fulltime workers and about 35 contract employees.

Luminant has spent the past two years testing lignite deposits in the Turlington area of the county and securing land for the new mine. Pearson says that a mine permit application cannot be filed until the land is secured, and that the application was filed with TRC on Nov. 7, 2008.

As it does with Big Brown Mine, the permit must be renewed every five years.

Mine engineering manager Daniel Munoz points out that operations are expected to be more efficient at the new mine site because lignite deposits are more accessible. Currently, miners must remove 13 tons of soil to extract one ton of lignite, and in the Turlington area that the ration is much lower at 5-to-1.

The new mine, Munoz says, is designated as "D Area" of Big Brown.

"D Area" is laid out to be a little more than 10,000 acres east of Lake Fairfield, about half the size of the current mine that is nearing the end of its life, and is located wholly in Freestone county.

Luminant plans to continue bringing in Western Coal to blend with lignite mined on site.

Guests at the Luminant luncheon, held at the power plant conference center, were welcomed by senior vice president of lignite/gas power plants Ric Federwisch who conducted a wider ranging discussion on company challenges and activities.

"We are glad you are here and glad to be part of the community," Federwisch says.

A year ago, Luminant announced plans to build a pilot power plant utilizing coal gasification technology, and planned to announce a location for the facility later in 2008.

Senior vice president of environmental affairs Shawn Glacken reports that Luminant received 14 bids for the project and is evaluating those bids, but factors such as a shortage of capital from financial institutions and incentives to build the cleaner building plant also must be weighed.

"We are still looking at the process, but there must be some economies of scale to build that plant," Ms. Glacken says.

The company is presently building three coal-fired power plants, plans to add two units to its Comanche Peak nuclear power plant and is heavily invested in wind power.

"Texas has more wind power opportunities than anywhere in the United States, but most of it is in West Texas and it is difficult to get power to users," Federwisch says.

He also points out that wind turbines don't produce power when the wind is not blowing, and must be shut down when winds exceed 35 miles per hour.

Big Brown production manager Brett Amheiser reports that wind turbines operate only about 35 percent of the time and construction of wind farms requires about two and one-half the capacity to equal electricity generated at a power plant—-it would take about 500 wind turbines to equal generation at BBSES.

In addition, Ms. Glacken reports, electricity produced by wind can't be stored.

Luminant is the largest purchaser of wind power in the state, buying about 900 megawatts of electricity from the source.

Federwisch explains that there will always be a need for coal- and gas-fired power plants, and nuclear plants, because of the need to supplement wind power to meet customer needs.

Natural gas plants manager Scott Diermann reports that Luminant started those plants 4,000 times last year to meet peak demands. Because of increases in the cost of natural gas, those plants often sit idle until needed.

Several of the guests at the luncheon also took a tour of the mine and of land reclamation areas for which the company has won several awards over the years.