Coal | EnergyNorthwest.com

More U.S. Coal Units Closing Despite Possible Market Pricing Change

November 22, 2017

U.S. utilities continue to announce closures of financially troubled and older coal-fired power plants even as government officials work on a bailout plan to keep them operating.

Owners of a coal plant in Montana that has only been online since 2006 informed the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) last week of plans to shutter the facility early next year if they can’t find a buyer. The news comes at the same time Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities (LG&E-KU) said it would close two long-running coal-fired units at the E.W. Brown Generating Station near Harrodsburg, Kentucky, in February 2019.

The announcements are the latest in a series of closures announced in recent months, including three large coal-fired plants in Texas—two operated by Vistra Energy and another by Luminant, a Vistra subsidiary—that generate about 4.2 GW of electricity, or about 12% of the state’s coal-fired generation capacity. Another large Texas plant, CPS Energy’s 840-MW Deely station in San Antonio, is scheduled to close in 2018.…

FERC’s Chatterjee Has Interim Plan to Prop Up Coal, Nuclear Plants

November 16, 2017

| No Comments

| Industry News

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Acting Chairman Neil Chatterjee, who has said he is “sympathetic” to a rule that would help prop up struggling U.S. coal and nuclear power plants, apparently is ready to move forward with an interim plan to keep financially troubled plants operating while his agency continues to consider a market-changing cost proposal from the Department of Energy (DOE).

Utility Dive on November 15 reported that Chatterjee is “considering regulatory action,” saying FERC could issue a “show cause” order directing regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and independent system operators (ISOs) to update market tariffs to keep baseload plants, or those with “necessary resilience attributes,” operating or show why those plants should not continue to remain online. That would provide time for FERC to institute rules regarding electricity grid resilience and market compensation.

Neil Chatterjee, acting chairman of FERC, says he is ready to implement an interim plan to help struggling coal and nuclear plants. Courtesy: FERC

Chatterjee, who said he has not detailed his plan with other FERC staff, told Utility Dive his proposal would be “messy” and “uncomfortable.”…

Death Toll Rises to 43 in Wake of India Coal Plant Blast

November 12, 2017

| 1 Comment

| Industry News

Officials in India say the the death toll from the November 1 explosion at an NTPC thermal plant in Unchahar has risen to 43, with seven more deaths reported in the past week. Dozens of workers at the plant were injured when flue gases and steam were released from a 500-MW coal-fired unit at the plant during a maintenance operation. Several workers remain hospitalized, many with severe burns, according to local officials, who late November 10 said at least eight of the injured are in “very critical” condition.

India’s Power Ministry has a committee investigating the explosion at the Feroze Gandhi Unchahar Thermal Power Station in Uttar Pradesh state. The blast occurred in Unit 6 of the plant, a unit which was commissioned in March and had been operating on a trial basis since September. The six-unit, 1,550-MW Gandhi plant supplies electricity to nine states—Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Uttarakhand—and employs about 870 workers.…

IEA Says Southeast Asia Will Keep Coal Demand High

October 29, 2017

| No Comments

| Industry News

The International Energy Agency (IEA) says the need for cheap electricity in Southeast Asia will drive global demand for coal for power generation through 2040, even as many countries continue to retire coal-fired plants and cancel projects for new coal facilities.

IEA, which is set to release its World Energy Outlook 2017 on November 14, this week said India and Southeast Asia will account for the majority of the use of coal in the coming years, as those areas’ economies continue to grow and demand for electricity rises.

“Coal maintains a strong foothold in [Southeast Asia’s] projected consumption, not only because it is markedly cheaper than natural gas, but also because coal projects are in many cases easier to pursue as they do not require the capital-intensive infrastructure associated with gas,” the IEA said in a report in advance of the release of the November outlook.

The agency said about 100 GW of new coal-fired power generation capacity is expected to come online in Southeast Asia by 2040, increasing the region’s installed capacity to about 160 GW.…

Vistra Closing Two More Giant Uneconomic Coal Plants in Texas

October 17, 2017

| No Comments

| Industry News

Vistra Energy moved to halt a financial hemorrhage stemming from unprofitable conditions in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), announcing plans to shutter two more coal-fired power plants—the 1.1-GW Sandow Power Plant (which includes a 2009-built unit) and the 1.2-GW Big Brown plant—in early 2018.

The company’s decision made public on October 13 comes on the heels of an announcement last week by Vistra Energy subsidiary Luminant to shutter its 1.9-GW coal-fired Monticello plant in Titus County.

Vistra Energy said the coal plant closures are necessary because they are “economically challenged in the competitive ERCOT market.” Specifically, it said, “Sustained low wholesale power prices, an oversupplied renewable generation market, and low natural gas prices, along with other factors, have contributed to this decision.”

Terminating Years of Service

“This announcement is a difficult one to make,” said Vistra Energy President and CEO Curt Morgan. “It is never easy to announce an action that has a significant impact on our people. Though the long-term economic viability of these plants has been in question for some time, our year-long analysis indicates this announcement is now necessary.”…

Operator Reverses Course, Will Keep Running Montana Coal Plant

August 13, 2017

| No Comments

| Industry News

The operator of one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the Western U.S. will continue to run the facility, changing course about a year after a company executive said the plant was not economically viable.

A spokesman for Talen Energy confirmed to POWER on August 9 that the company will continue to operate the 2,094-MW Colstrip Generating Station in Montana. The company last year told the ownership group it would need to find a new operator by mid-2018.

Todd Martin, a spokesman for Talen, told POWER in an email: “I can confirm that the ownership group has determined that Talen Montana will continue to operate the Colstrip Station.” He said the company would have “no additional public information to share at this time.”

The Billings (Mont.) Gazette first reported August 9 that Colstrip would remain open, based on its interviews in the past week with representatives of the six utilities that co-own the plant.

Montana legislators earlier this year approved a deal that would allow Pennsylvania-based Talen to borrow up to $ 10 million a year to keep the plant operating until 2022.…