The J.H. Campbell Generating Complex is operating a little cleaner and greener these days, as the building trades completed extensive environmental upgrades earlier this month at the plant's Unit No. 1 coal-burner.

The largest portion of the $100 million project involved the installation of a new electrostatic precipitator building, and a great deal of work was also devoted to installing fuel-handling equipment that allows the plant to burn environmentally friendlier Western coal. A third goal that was accomplished involved converting the plant's control room and sensors on the equipment it monitors from analog to digital.

"It was a four-month outage, and we employed more than a thousand construction workers," said Dennis McKee, community affairs director with the Campbell complex. "We accomplished all of our goals."

Consumers Energy coordinated the project, and contractors who played a major role included Northern Boiler, Newkirk Electric and Alston Power. The project was necessary so the plant's emissions would be in line with federal Clean Air Act requirements.

At 1.4 kilowatts, the J.H. Campbell complex is Consumers Energy's largest coal-fired power plant, burning about 3.5 million tons of coal per year. Located along the Lake Michigan shore between Holland and Grand Haven, it began operation in 1962 with the start-up of Unit 1. Unit two fired up in 1967, and Unit 3 in 1980. The three turbines at the plant provide enough power for a community one million people.

Nearly $320 million in construction work has taken place at the Campbell plant over the last 14 months. Last fall, $176 million worth of work was performed on Unit No. 2, and just over a year ago, a $42 million maintenance project was performed on Unit No. 3.

Consumers Energy, the principal subsidiary of the CMS Energy Corporation, is Michigan's largest utility providing natural gas and electricity to more than six million of the state's nine and one-half million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.

METAL DECKING is cut at the Campbell Unit No. 3 outage by Blase Wielgosz of Sheet Metal Workers Local 7.