Boardman Coal Power Plant

1980 - 2020

The plant is named after the city of Boardman, which itself was named in honor of Samuel H. Boardman, who founded the city of Boardman in 1903. Carty Reservoir, the water storage and cooling pond, was named for James Carty, one of the early pioneers of the area who envisioned pumping water from the Columbia River to irrigate the semi-arid land.

Located only a short distance north of the original Oregon Trail, archeologists surveyed on and near the site from 1973-1975. The site certificate was issued in 1975; construction began in February 1976 and was completed in 1980, amassing more than 7,000,000 people-hours to build.

Aug. 3, 1980 to Oct. 15, 2020

Commercial operation

Columbia River, about 10 miles south of Boardman

Location

Additional Resources:

PGE-Boardman Power Project

1980 artist's sketch of PGE's proposed coal-fired power plant near Boardman.

The project featured: 230 hi-side bathtub gondola cars built specifically to haul the low sulfur subbituminous coal the 1,200 miles from the mines in Wyoming to the plant. Beginning in January 1980, two 100-car trains arrived at the plant every two-and-a-half days, each carrying 10,000 tons of coal. A coal-handling yard designed to store more than 2 million tons of coal. A pipeline 60-inches in diameter to carry water 18 miles from the Willow Creek arm of the Columbia River to the reservoir. A 656-foot-high concrete chimney with a free-standing steel liner 29-feet in diameter at the top and 51-feet at the bottom. As high as a 65-story building, it was the tallest concrete structure in Oregon.

Boardman was the only coal-fired power plant in Oregon; PGE had a 90% ownership share of the plant, and Idaho Power owned the remaining 10%. In 2014, a new biofuel was tested when PGE was authorized to temporarily store and process raw biomass (sawdust and wood chips) at the plant and to use torrefied biomass as fuel. The test burns and the raw biomass was removed in 2018.

Additional Resources:

Trojan: The lasting legacy of PGE’s Atomic Age

Trojan was the first and only commercial nuclear power plant in Oregon, the largest in the United States and the first to be decommissioned.

The plant took its name from the Trojan Powder Company, the dynamite, and explosives storage facility on the site during World Wars I and II. PGE chose the site in 1967, and construction began on Feb. 1, 1970. The plant was connected to the grid in December 1975 and commercial operation began on May 20, 1976, under a 35-year license to expire in 2011. At the time, the single 1,130-megawatt unit was the world's largest pressurized water reactor. It cost $460 million to build.

In 1978, following the discovery of an unknown fault, the plant went offline for routine refueling and remained offline for nine months while modifications were made to improve its resistance to earthquakes.

May 1976 to May 1993

Commercial operation

Columbia River, four miles from Rainier

Location

Trojan Nuclear Power Plant

1976 - 1993

Erecting H-Frame Structures on the Bethel-Round Butte Transmission Line, 1963

History of PGE

Electrifying Oregon

Powering Progress

A Thoughtful Transition

History of PGE

Electrifying Oregon

Powering Progress

A Thoughtful Transition

Forever Evolving

Powering the Future

A Thoughtful Transition

Clackamas Project Expansion

Building Reliable Power Plants

Powering Progress

Willamette Falls

Clackamas River Construction

Electrifying Oregon

History of PGE

Electrifying Oregon

Powering Progress

A Thoughtful Transition