Texas Monticello 1 coal unit offline for tube leak

LOS ANGELES Feb 11 (Reuters) - TXU Corp.'s TXU.N 565-megawatt Unit 1 at the Monticello coal-fired power station in Texas shut Sunday morning due to a boiler tube leak, the Dallas-based company told Texas regulators in a report.

The "unit will be restarted as system demands allow following repairs," the report said.

The report also said, the "unit shutdown will be expedited and abatement systems will be kept in service as long as temperatures will allow."

The 1,880 MW Monticello station is located in Mount Pleasant in Titus County, about 250 miles (402 km) north of Houston. There are three units at the station, including two 565 MW Units 1 and 2 and the 750 MW Unit 3, which entered service in 1974, 1975 and 1978, respectively.

One MW powers about 500 homes in Texas.

TXU's unregulated TXU Power subsidiary owns and operates the station.

The plant burns lignite coal from nearby mines, supplemented by coal from the Powder River Basin.

TXU in April filed an air permit application with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for a proposed 800 MW Unit 4 at Monticello, which would burn subbituminous coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana. If approved, TXU expects Unit 4 to enter service in 2010.

On Feb. 21, the State Office of Administrative Hearings will conduct a consolidated hearing on seven of eight of TXU's contested new coal plant proposals, including Monticello 4.

TXU owns and operates more than 18,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, supplies energy to more than 2.5 million customers in Texas and transmits and distributes electricity to more than 2.9 million customers in the state.