The Moran Municipal Generation Station is a former 30-megawatt power plant known for its architecture and innovation built in Burlington, Vermont from 1952 to 1955. It is now a derelict structure that will be redeveloped to encourage year-round use, economic activity and public access. The Moran Plant is located at 475 Lake Street on the Burlington waterfront. It is named for Burlington mayor J.E. Moran.
The Moran Plant was decommissioned in 1986. Since then, the building has been vacant, except for a small portion of the basement utilized by the Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center. Ownership of the station was transferred from the Burlington Electric Department to the City of Burlington in 1990. In 2010, the city began executing plans for a rehabilitation of the plant and site.
History
In 1948, after a series of power shortages, the Burlington Electric Department argued that a new electric plant was now a critical need. Mayor Moran supported the plan.
In 1951, Burlington Electric Department and the City of Burlington water department jointly purchased the lot that the Moran Plant sits on from the Central Vermont Railway. The contract for the new plant was awarded to Pierce Consulting Engineering Company in September. In November, voters approved a $4 million bond required for implementation. BED commissioners selected the Vermont Construction Company Inc. to erect the plant. The 1952 steel strike caused a six-week delay, and ground was broken in July 1952. The situation continued to deteriorate. Vermont Construction found itself in severe fiscal distress and Pierce Consulting's plans were decreed to be not only poor but also $2.2 million over budget. Both companies were dropped from the project and replaced by J.F. Pritchard Company in January 1953.
The plant was fully completed in the summer of 1955. The Moran's three turbine generators and power switchgear assemblies, sold and installed by General Electric, Westinghouse and Allis-Chalmers, accounted for just over $1 million.
The plant – formally named the J. Edward Moran Municipal Generating Station in 1962 – quickly became a source of angst for those who lived and worked downwind of it. Waste expelled from the smokestacks drifted down and covered everything within its path with a thick, black crust. Laundry hung out to dry was immediately dirty again, windows were covered in soot and multiple respiratory problems were reported. Burlington Electric Department made a series of changes to the plants to reduce the pollution. Although some improvement was noted, problems would persist throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
The Moran Plant's role as a backup source of power was important in keeping the city illuminated during the Northeast blackout of 1965.
Changes
The 1970s energy crisis forced the Burlington Electric Department to seek new sources of fuel. In 1977, Burlington Electric Department employees tried an experimental conversion of one of the firing units from coal to wood chips mixed with one part of heating oil. Wood chips cost $12 per ton, as opposed to $50 – a savings of 0.7¢. At a cost of $25,000 this in-house conversion took four months from design to fabrication and installation. The unit was retooled without federal grants or other technical assistance. Steampipes were recycled from other boilers and an old first-aid kit was used for the control box. Approved by the New England Power Pool after a brief, three-week testing period this conversion gained global attention. A second coal-fired unit was successfully converted at the Moran during the summer of 1979. The Moran plant used more than 100,000 t of wood chips for fuel in addition to , of natural gas, and of No. 2 fuel oil in 1983.
During the 1970s, most of the power supply for Burlington came from the Moran Plant, and its three 1950s-vintage, 10-MW stoker coal-fired units, struggled to meet Burlington's electric load growth. The aging of the Moran Plant, and its outdated emission controls prompted the Burlington Electric Department to examine ways to provide additional generating capacity to meet the city's needs.