Gerald Gentleman Station facts for kids
Gerald Gentleman Station is the biggest power plant in Nebraska, USA. It is located at 41°04′51″N 101°08′35″W / 41.08083°N 101.14306°W, near the town of Sutherland. This plant is owned and run by the Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD).
The station has two large machines called coal-fired generating units. These units burn coal to create electricity. They started working in 1979 and 1982. Together, they can make 1,365 megawatts of power. A megawatt is a huge amount of electricity, enough to power many homes!
Building the Power Plant
Building the Gerald Gentleman Station started in May 1973. The first power-making unit began working in April 1979. The second unit started up in January 1982.
The plant is named after Gerald Gentleman. He was a person from Platte Center, Nebraska.
Where the Coal Comes From
The station uses a lot of Coal to make electricity. This coal comes from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. It travels a long way by train.
The trains use tracks from Union Pacific and BNSF Railway. Some tracks were even built just for this power plant by NPPD. When the station is running at full power, it burns about 800 tons of coal every hour. That's a huge amount of coal!
How Water is Used
Making electricity creates a lot of heat. To cool things down, the plant uses water from the man-made Sutherland Reservoir.
This reservoir gets its water from the Sutherland Canal. The canal starts at Kingsley Dam on the North Platte River.
