Notes from Site Visit at Florida Power and Light’s Sanford Power Plant on 

October 7, 2009 

EPA conducted a site visit at Florida Power and Light’s (FP&L’s) Sanford Power Plant 

(Sanford) located in Debary, FL on Wednesday, October 7, 2009 to learn about the operations at 

the plant, specifically the waste streams associated with the oil-fired units and the combined 

cycle units. Table 1, located at the end of this memorandum, identifies the site visit participants. 

The presentation that the Sanford personnel gave during the site visit is provided as Attachment 

1 to this memorandum. 

This memorandum describes the information collected during the site visit and the pre-site visit 

phone call, which was held on October 1, 2009. 

Plant Overview 

 The Sanford plant comprises 1,718 acres and currently employs 70 people. 

 Sanford began operations in 1925 when Units 1 and 2 began operating. Units 1 

and 2 were both oil-fired units and were retired in 1964. 

 Sanford currently operates three electric generating units at the power plant, with 

a gross generating capacity of 2,156 MW. The table below contains some general 

information for the three generating units. 

Unit Installation Date Gross Capacity (MW) Fuel Type NOx Control 

3 1958 156 #6 Fuel Oil and/or 

Natural Gas 

None 

4 1972 

Repowered in 2003 

320 (steam turbine) 

680 (4 combustion turbines) 

Natural Gas – 

Combined Cycle 

DLN 2.6 

(Dry Low 

NOx 

combustion 

tuning) 

5 1973 

Repowered in 2002 

320 (steam turbine) 

680 (4 combustion turbines 

Natural Gas – 

Combined Cycle 

DLN 2.6 

(Dry Low 

NOx 

combustion 

tuning) 

Note: Total gross generation is less than nameplate capacity due to steam generation limitations 

from the Heat Recovery Steam Generators. Values shown are from Title V Air Operating Permit. 
Page 2 

Unit 3 Operations 

 Unit 3 was placed in an extended shut down in October 2008. If Sanford chooses 

to bring Unit 3 back online, it would likely be within 30 days; however, the unit 

can be restarted as quick as 7 days, if needed. 

 Unit 3 burns either #6 distillate fuel oil or natural gas, primarily depending on the 

current market price. 

 The plant burned 2.5 million barrels of oil annually when Unit 3 was in operation. 

The oil had an average ash content of 0.05-0.06 percent and an average sulfur 

content of about 1 percent. 

 When Unit 3 is operating, the ash is collected daily through the economizer 

hopper, air preheater washes, and boiler washes, and transferred to the ash 

treatment system once per day. 

 Air preheater wash cycles are based on differential pressure. The washes typically 

occur approximately once every two weeks if the unit is operating at full load. 

The plant initially uses clean water to wash the air preheater. If pH is <4, soda ash 

is added. Wash volumes are approximately 25,000-30,000 gallons per wash. The 

air preheater wash water is piped to an above-ground concrete collection basin, 

then it is pumped to the ash basin (a lined basin). 

 Approximately 1,000-1,500 gallons are generated during each economizer wash 

cycle. 

 The boiler fireside washes occur during maintenance overhauls if the unit is 

exhibiting difficulty maintaining steam temperature. When unit 3 was in 

operation, the boiler fireside wash would occur once per year. 

 FP&L staff indicated that conventional plants burning #6 fuel oil, such as FP&L’s 

Manatee, Martin, and Turkey Point plants, typically sluice the ash to an ash basin. 

For units where gas is primarily burned, any ash associated with oil burning is not 

collected separately but is emitted through the stack. 

 Unit 3 has once-through cooling water supplied by the St. John’s River. 

 Unit 3 is operated as a peaking unit, supplying electricity primarily in the summer 

months. 

Combined Cycle Unit Operations (Units 4 and 5) 

 Units 4 and 5 originally were fueled by oil and natural gas. These units were 

repowered in 2002 and 2003 (i.e., converted into combined cycle units). 

 Each unit has four combustion turbines and one steam turbine. During the site 

visit, both units were operating with 3 combustion turbines and one steam turbine 

(“3-on-1”). Enough steam is generated from two of the combustion turbines to run 
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the steam turbine, so the plant can operate in 2-, 3-, or 4-on-1 mode. 

 The units are provided cooling water from a 1,100-acre cooling pond built 

between 1970 and 1971. Water is recirculated from the pond to the units. Makeup 

water to the cooling pond comes from the St. John’s River. The pond is not lined, 

but has engineered embankment walls constructed with soil-cement. Each power 

block wet surface air cooler under normal operating conditions typically returns 

50gpm back to the cooling pond. Inlet flow to each wet surface air cooler is 

based upon a nominal level in the cooler basin and fluctuates based upon 

evaporation / drift rate. Actual gpm flow rate to each cooler is not recorded. 

 The efficiency of Units 4 and 5 decreases as the combustion turbine blades 

become dirty. Two types of water washes may be performed: 

 On-line water washes occur every other day on these baseload units. 

Demineralized water is injected at the front end of the air compressor 

while the unit is operating for approximately five minutes and evaporates. 

There is no discharge from this operation. 

 Off-line water washes of the air compressor are used to remove deposits 

using demineralized water and a low sudsing detergent. These washes 

tend to occur quarterly (or more frequently in summer) and generate about 

3,000 gallons of wastewater, which is sent to the low volume wastewater 

basins. The plant has conducted a TCLP analysis of the wastewater. A 

copy of this analysis is provided as Attachment 2. 

Wastewater Treatment 

 A water flow diagram of the plant is included as Attachment 3. 

 Low volume waste, including equipment area drains and stormwater, is 

transported to the low volume wastewater basins, which consists of two basins, 

followed by an oil/water separator, prior to discharge to the cooling pond 

discharge canal. The plant monitors the discharge to the canal for TSS and oil 

and grease. 

 Unit 3 metal cleaning wastewater, including turbine cleaning wash water, is 

transported to a lined basin, where sodium hydroxide is added to elevate the pH 

and precipitate out any metals. The water is retained for 24 hours. The basin 

includes two mixers. Once precipitation has occurred, the water is drawn from the 

basin and sent to an adjustment tank where sulfuric acid is introduced to lower the 

pH between 6 and 9 S.U. The wastewater is then discharged to the cooling pond 

discharge canal over a period of about 3 days. 

 Unit 4 and 5 combustion turbine offline washwater is sent to the low volume 

waste basin. (Process equipment cleaning water). 

 

 Sanford stated that the basins are lined with high density polyethylene (HPDE) 

with a thickness of 80 mils or 0.08 cm. 
Page 4 

 The cooling pond is not lined and has a volume of 3.1 billion gallons. Statistics on 

the design and inspection of the cooling pond can be found in Attachment 1. 

Approximately 5,000 gpm evaporates, 10,000 gpm is used for the cooling water 

intake, and 5,000 gpm is blown down to the St. John’s River. 
Page 5 

 Table 1. Site Visit Attendees 

Name Organization (Representing) Telephone E-mail Randy Hopkins FP&L Sanford Plant 386-575-5385 Randy.Hopkins@FPL.Brad Williams FP&L Sanford Plant 386-575-5211 David.Williams@FPL.Bruce Stuart FP&L Sanford Plant 386-575-5244 Bruce.Stuart@fpl.com Ron Hix Florida Power and Light 561-691-7641 Ron.Hix@FPL.com Christian Kiernan Florida Power and Light 561-691-2781 Christian.kiernan@FPLDonna Hill UWAG 205-257-5234 dbhill@southernco.com Ron Jordan EPA/Office of Water 202-566-1003 jordan.ronald@epa.gov Deb Bartram ERG (Contractor to EPA) 703-633-1669 deborah.bartram@erg.c

Note: During the site visit Gary Kowalczyk was the Sanford Plant General Manager, but is now located at a differe

Williams is now the Sanford Plant General Manager.