Release Date: November 16, 2007

Washington, DC - The Office of Fossil Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has released its 2007 Coal Power Plant Database, a new, updated version which contains the most current and comprehensive collection of coal-fired power plant data in the United States.  

The database consolidates large quantities of information on the nation's existing coal-fired power plants in a single location. It covers 191 fields and provides information on more than 1,700 boilers and associated units. Emissions, generation, location, and firing data for all U.S. coal-power plants are located in the database, which supports DOE's Office of Fossil Energy and NETL project management and analysis studies.

The 2007 database updates the original Microsoft Excel format and adds two new formats - Microsoft Access and an Excel pivot table version - that make the database more accessible to parties who are interested in managing coal-related projects or understanding the U.S. coal generation landscape.

The three formats enable users to customize searches according to their needs. The Excel version is for those who want full control of the data; its structure is similar to former versions with the exception of additional columns regarding particulate data. The pivot table version was created for users already familiar with the application and allows them to easily create or restructure tables and manipulate data. The Access version allows users to make quick searches for specific criteria within the substantial amount of data.

NETL established the following objectives for revising the database:

• Replace existing data (from 2003) with the most current available data (from 2005);
• Provide quality assurance checks of the updated database;
• Expand the available particulate matter data;
• Develop a spreadsheet that can be queried with pivot tables; and 
• Create a user-friendly Microsoft Access version of the database.

Updating the data was the first priority. Data was collected using the same method as in previous database versions. The "backbone" of the database is Energy Information Agency (EIA) Form 767, a downloadable steam-electric plant data file. Other sources include:

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Air Markets Data and Maps;
• EPA's National Emissions Inventory; and
• EIA Form 423, which is a collection of monthly fossil fuel deliveries to generating facilities.

The quality assurance process involved: (1) a random spot check of more than 350 data points to ensure the correct information was transferred from the resource to the database and (2) an analysis to determine the proper application of equations. The new format versions were subject to the same quality assurance process.