McIntosh CAES Power Plant

 power plant, pumped-storage power station

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2nd commercial CAES plant. Stores compressed air in a salt cavern of 220 feet (67 m) diameter, with ten million cubic foot total volume. The cavern is pressurized to 1,100 psi, and it is discharged down to 650 psi. During discharge, 340 pounds per second of air flow out of the cavern. The plant also utilizes nuclear-sourced night-time power for compression and then produces peak power during the day by releasing the compressed air into a 110-MW gas-fired combustion turbine. The turbine unit also makes use of an air-to-air heat exchanger to preheat air from the cavern with waste heat from the turbine. The waste heat recovery system reduces fuel usage by roughly 25%. The system is fully operational within 15 minutes, uses a third of the fuel required for a fuel-only generating system, and can operate efficiently at low loads. The project is used for peak shaving

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