SACUL, Texas — Emergency personnel say two workers have been critically hurt in an apparent electrical explosion and brief fire at a biomass power plant in East Texas.
A dispatcher with the Nacogdoches County Sheriff’s Department says the accident was reported around 8 a.m. Tuesday at a facility in Sacul, about 165 miles northeast of Houston.
A spokesman for Fagen Inc. of Granite Falls, Minn., which operates the unit, declined comment.
A spokeswoman at Nacogdoches Memorial Hospital says both men remained in critical condition Tuesday afternoon and would be transferred to the burn unit of Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas.
Sheriff’s dispatcher Jerry Heilmann says the accident apparently involved some type of electrical explosion, but the cause remains under investigation.
Names of the injured workers were not immediately released.
If the government had stricter control on the power companies then accidents like this would NOT HAPPEN!!! OBAMA is the only one with kajones enough to save them from themselves! ; )
Biomass – something about the fit hitting the shan. All joking aside, accidents (particularly those in the energy industry) are no laughing matter. Hope both workers make a full recovery. I’m sure their families had planned for them to return safely at the end of the day.
Sure, Oscar Juan Carlos….. and the safety record of government sites is good? Hardly.
The US Government pollutes the most.
The US Government has a high number of serious accidents at their facilities.
The US Government exempts itself from most safety regs.
Could have been a oil filled transformer over heating and blowing gallons of very hot oil on them. That must be a large operation from all the employee’s in the parking lot. I wish the Chron had added more information like were they making bio-fuel or burning trash to make electricity.
The immediate plans for the Nacogdoches Generating
Facility will include a biomass-fueled electric generating plant
located near Sacul in Nacogdoches County, Texas. The plant will be
used to serve the growing electricity needs in Austin, Texas and is
scheduled to begin commercial operation in the summer of 2012. The
site which was construction-ready upon purchase, was acquired from
American Renewables in 2009.
The plant consists of a bubbling fluidized bed boiler, a condensing
steam turbine generator with an evaporative cooling tower, wood fuel
handling system and auxiliary support equipment. The plant will be
fueled with biomass materials, including forest residue from the
surrounding areas, wood processing residues and clean municipal
wood waste.
Approximately 1 million tons of fuel will be required annually, which is
planned to be procured within a 75-mile radius of the project site.
Biomass generation is being used to help meet the state’s Renewable
Portfolio Standard, with the output serving the City of Austin.
Now Chron was that so hard to look up!
It was an “electrical explosion” probably meaning the motor control center or switchgear arc flashed and blew open the doors of the equipment in the e-building, blasting the maintenance tech against the building wall and burning him. There is such a thing as arc resistant switchgear. Sure it costs more but this might have been prevented if the gear had been spec’d into the initial building of the plant.
Smilin John… The power plant I retired from had a 4160 v circuit breaker explode 20 years ago 2 were killed and 4 seriously injured. The end result was we developed a robot to do the job. Racking in those breakers can be scary, but then anytime you work in a energy related industry it can be hazardous. My best wishes for the injured ones and their families.
You beat me to it JOHN. Well said.
. . . didn’t realize Sacul had anything other than a fourth Saturday night opera, and a Friday evening catfish dinner at the only gas station . . . . and an annual homecoming festival in June . . . . nice place . . . good folks . . . .
That’s Texas electricity deregulation for ya!! Thanx PUC!!! Remember, they promised “deregulating will save Texans vastly on their electricity bills!!” Since That time, electricity process for “non-coop” providers has increased greater than 150%. Let’s have MORE deregulation… then your monthly bills will be simple… just allocate the same amount you pay on your mortgage to your electricity, and you’ll at least be close when you estimate.
Have a look at the results of Deregulation on YOU the “Retail Consumer”.
http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2012/01/25/electric-deregulation-turns-ten-in-texas/
AP must have a different definition of “northeast” than I do. That looks a lot closer to due north of Houston.
WelL guys the plant is still under construction, I myself worked out there for 14 months and have been out of
There for 6 month and my wife still works in the electrical dept. so here it is in a nut shell. There were 2 guys
Working on some 4160 gear in the south PDC near the boiler. It was a job that had started the day before and they
Were working on finishing up today. They say every thing was done by the book, but if that was true you wouldn’t
Be reading about this. I was in electrical supervision the time that I was there and happen to know the guys that
Were injured. It saddens me to know it was someone that I know. my heart goes out to there families. I would hate
To know I was responsible for someone getting hurt like this. This is what happens when you take short cuts and
Upper management try to run all the diff department when said management hasnt a clue as to what it takes to do the
Job. I’m so glad that I do not have to live with the fact that I got someone hurt. Godbless all that we’re injured and there
Families. There lives will never be the same.
Oscar Juan Carlos do you work for a energy company? No then you have no clue how strict regulations are. The energy industry is regulated more than any other. You are just like ever other leftist liberal. You want to complain and shut companies yet I’m sure you like your electricity, the fuel for your car, your big screen tvs, etc
to Joe-no more Friday fish and the festival is in September now because of the heat…to the guys who know electrical they were hooking this up without suits on, but they were told it was not “hot”, but it must have been otherwise everything would have been fine, just keep them in ya’ll prayers
Ex fagen employee. I know who you are.
Former Fagen Supervisor. Saw this coming and quit a year ago. “Husband is still fagen employee”, and “Ex Fagen Employee” are dead on. Listen to Them.
I had non electrical management forcing decisions on me based on Money with no regard for safety. When it became apparent I could not change this I had to walk away from it. Say a prayer for the injured Workers, I have no doubt they were caught in the middle.