POWER PLAY: DAVIS AT CONTROLS OF MASSIVE GENERATING FACILITY

SIKESTON -- Jim Davis is responsible for the operation of a $250 million generating plant that supplies electricity to cities in at least three states.

Davis, 32, a native of Sikeston, is one of four control-room operators at the Sikeston Municipal Power Plant on the west end of town. The plant is a landmark that can be seen for at least 30 miles in all directions, with its tall, red-and-white-striped smokestack emitting a plume of steam vapor.

The power plant generates up to 230 megawatts of electricity, or, put another way, 230 million watts of current. The electricity is generated by a steam turbine using high-pressure steam created in a 300-foot-tall vertically-suspended boiler.

Each day the boiler consumes 2,600 tons of finely-ground coal dust that is injected at high pressure into a fire box where the temperature exceeds 2,000 degrees.

The plant generates electricity for the city of Sikeston, which sells surplus power to other customers in three states, including Southwestern Power Administration, Associated Electric of New Madrid, and cities in Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Some might consider Davis' job overwhelming, but Davis says the work is interesting and challenging.

"I did some factory work before I started at the power plant," he said. "Factory work gets old in a hurry. You come to work every day and do the same thing, day after day. Nothing ever changes. This job is different, and that's what I like about it."

Davis began his career with the Sikeston Board of Municipal Utilities a little over 10 years ago. His dad worked at the city's old power plant as a boiler-fireman.

After his graduation from Sikeston High School, Davis applied for work at the 230-megawatt plant, which was still under construction.

Davis is one of the original employees who put the power plant on line. He began in January 1980 at the bottom of the ladder as an auxiliary operator.

"My job was to take care of all the auxiliary equipment that supports the operation of the power plant, such as water pumps, oil and lube pumps," Davis explained. "There was a lot of `footwalk' involved because you were busy during your shift inspecting the equipment, reading gauges and monitoring the operation of the equipment, making sure it all worked properly when the control operator pushed the button."

The operation of the plant is very similar to that at the remote-controlled and automated Lone Star Cement Plant in Cape Girardeau. Nearly all of the cement plant and the Sikeston power plant operations are operated from a central control room.

The control-room operator is in constant radio contact with auxiliary equipment operations people, who roam the plant in their designated areas.

Davis said the work as an auxiliary equipment operator prepared him for his job in the control room. "By the time you get to the control room, you've got a through knowledge of the operation of the plant and the support equipment," he said.

From auxiliary equipment operator, Davis moved over to the plant's scrubber operation as the assistant scrubber-control-room operator. The scrubber receives hot gases from the boiler, removes solid particles such as fly ash, then scrubs the gases to remove EPA-designated pollutants.

In addition to working in the scrubber control room, Davis also spent a portion of his time as assistant plant-control-room operator.

In 1982 he was promoted to control-room operator.

In the control room Davis monitors the entire operation of the power plant: the supply of coal feeding into the mills, water into the boiler, and electrical output feeding into the power grid.

The large control-room console is divided into three sections. Each controls and monitors a function of the plant operations and its auxiliary equipment. If something goes wrong, gauges in the control room alert Davis, who contacts his roving auxiliary equipment operators to check out the problem.

Because much of the plant's operations are computerized, most of Davis' work consists of monitoring gauges and taking readings every two hours.

It's when something goes wrong that a good plant operator is worth his salt, Davis said.

"He's got to make some fast decisions on how to react, with his first priority being safety; then he must keep the plant on line to continue generating electricity without damage to the equipment."

The plant operates on 12-hour shifts. Davis said management tried eight-hour shifts before but nobody like it.

"We work 48 hours one week and 36 hours the next week," he said.

Davis said the shift work presents some problems. "Let's face it: Our society today is still based on the 9-to-5, five-day work week, with Saturday and Sunday off. You are still going to miss some things, but with our schedule we are really off six months out of the year."

Davis said he must acclimate himself mentally and physically when going from the night shift to day shift. "If you don't, it can really be a problem," he said.

Despite these disadvantages, Davis said he wouldn't want to do anything else.

"The pay is good, I live only a few minutes away from the power plant, and more importantly, I like what I do," he said. "The job is interesting and challenging."