<span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Google Sans", Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Southaven Combined Cycle

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Directly neighboring the Allen site in Memphis sits the Southaven plant. Standing at the boundary, you realize you're looking right across state lines into Mississippi. Crossing state borders wasn't originally on my day-one agenda, but with the sun still up and the bike running great, I decided to push across state lines and tick Southaven off the list.

Southaven represents another facility that our organization didn't construct from the ground up. The plant was originally built by Cogentrix Energy. Our crews actually helped operate and run the facility for a period under contract before our enterprise officially purchased it outright in 2013.Southaven is a combined-cycle facility fueled by methane (natural gas). And as anyone working around heavy gas infrastructure can tell you, natural gas operations definitely have a distinct, pungent aroma—it stinks! But behind that distinct smell lies some of the most impressive thermal engineering on the entire grid. The Southaven facility features three distinct power blocks engineered to extract every possible bit of energy out of the fuel it burns:Step 1: Natural gas is burned in primary gas turbines to generate initial high-voltage electricity.Step 2: Instead of venting the scorching hot exhaust gas into the atmosphere, the intense leftover thermal energy is captured by massive Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSGs).Step 3: The captured heat creates high-pressure steam, which is then routed into a secondary set of steam turbines to generate additional power.Efficiency Boost: By capturing and reusing the waste heat, combined-cycle plants generate roughly 50% more electricity from the exact same amount of fuel compared to standard simple-cycle units. After taking in the impressive sight of the three power blocks, I did a very small bit of cross-country riding off the pavement to maneuver the motorcycle into a nice shady spot under some trees. It gave me a chance to cool off, drink some water, check the bike over, and capture some great photos before heading back to the hotel for a well-deserved dinner. More about Southaven Here, Here, Here, Here, and Here!