Hudson Generating Station

Hudson Generating Station

Company type	Division
Industry	Electricity generation
Founded	1906
Defunct	2017
Fate	Decommissioned and demolished
Headquarters	Jersey City , United States
Area served	Hudson County, New Jersey
Owner	Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG)
Parent	PSEG Fossil LLC

Hudson Generating Station was an electricity generation facility managed by PSEG Fossil LLC, a division of Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), situated in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey. Operational from 1906 until 2017, only Unit 2 remained active after 2011. This unit primarily utilized coal as its main fuel source and could also operate on natural gas as a secondary option. It incorporated multiple emission reduction systems. PSEG Power officially ceased operations at the station on June 1, 2017.

In January 2019, the 241-acre property was acquired by Hilco Redevelopment Partners, headquartered in Chicago. Their objective is to redevelop the area into a contemporary industrial park dedicated to warehouse and distribution services catering to the regional market.

Location

The Hudson Generating Station was positioned just under north of Duffield and Van Keuren Avenues. Located on the eastern shore of the Hackensack River near Riverbend, approximately three miles upstream from Newark Bay, it neighbored Croxton, the Marion Section, and Secaucus adjacent to Penhorn Creek.

History

Constructed on the site of the former Marion Generating Station—the initial PSEG facility operational since 1906—the Hudson Generating Station succeeded what had been PSEG’s largest generating unit until 1924. The Marion plant was largely phased out by 1961 as construction of Hudson commenced. Unit 1 was installed in 1964 and remained in service until its retirement in 2011; Unit 2 followed in 1968, functioning as a load-responsive unit. Additionally, Unit 3, a gas turbine, operated from 1967 through 2003.

The station was decommissioned by PSEG in 2017 due to tightening environmental regulations and a strategic transition toward natural gas power generation. Its distinctive 500-foot smokestack was demolished on March 21, 2020, with the main plant structure undergoing a controlled implosion on July 24, 2020.

Fuel supply

Unit 2 mainly consumed low-sulfur coal procured from West Virginia, with mercury levels measured at 0.056 ppm during testing in May 1996. The facility utilized water from the Hackensack River for condenser cooling within the Rankine cycle process and did not employ cooling towers. In the fall of 2017, leftover specialized-grade coal from Indonesia was exported overseas.

Historic emissions

Annual NOx, SO2 and CO2 emissions

Year	NOx (short tons)	SO2 (short tons)	CO2 (short tons)
2009	1,889.2	1,455.7	1,870,629.5
2010	2,206.7	1,727.5	2,387,413.6
2011	768.7	987.3	1,967,294.7
2012	372.8	138.9	663,637.3
2013	478.2	133.2	771,667.4

Ospreys

In 1998, PSEG established a nesting platform at the Hudson Generating Station to aid ospreys attempting to nest on transmission towers. This platform was constructed through community youth initiatives. By 2007, an osprey chick successfully fledged at the station—the first such event recorded in the New Jersey Meadowlands since the early twentieth century.

NJDEP Environmental Stewardship Program

By the year 2010, the station had received accolades from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection across ten out of twenty-one categories within its Environmental Stewardship Program.

Clean Air Act settlement and implementation of advanced emission controls

After being found in violation of New Source Review regulations in 2000, PSEG reached a settlement with federal authorities in 2002, committing to the installation of pollution control technologies at the Hudson Generating Station. By 2010, the plant had undergone a $700 million modernization, incorporating selective catalytic reduction systems to reduce nitrogen oxides, dry scrubbers targeting sulfur dioxide emissions, activated carbon injection to capture mercury, and pulse jet fabric filters designed to remove particulate matter. Despite these significant upgrades, opposition from certain community groups persisted due to ongoing environmental concerns.