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Judge Rules TVA Must Move Gallatin Coal Ash

August 5, 2017

A federal judge on August 4 said the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) must dig up coal ash at one of its power plants and move it to a lined waste site. The order came in a suit filed by the Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association (TSRA) and the Tennessee Clean Water Network (TCWN), who said coal ash stored at the TVA’s Gallatin Fossil Plant has been polluting the nearby Cumberland River for decades in violation of the Clean Water Act.

U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Nashville, Tenn., said that although there is little evidence thus far that seeping coal ash has polluted the river, uncertainty about future pollution and its possible danger will continue to create conflicts, and moving the ash is the best way to resolve an “untenable situation that has gone for far too long.” The Southern Environmental Law Center in 2014 announced its intention to represent the two environmental groups in the suit.

The case involves a coal ash pit at Gallatin that was closed in 1970, but where the coal ash ponds remain in use.…

DOE Won’t Increase Regulation on Gas to Boost Coal, Perry Says

July 19, 2017

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The Trump administration wants to revitalize the coal industry, but they will not do so by imposing regulation on the natural gas industry, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry told reporters July 18 at a joint press conference with International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol.

“Would the Department of Energy (DOE) be a participant in putting regulations into place to protect a particular energy sector?,” Perry said. “The answer is no.”

Though he firmly stated that DOE will not increase regulation on energy sources that compete with coal, he was unclear about how the administration intends to make coal competitive again.

He seemed to suggest that exports, either of coal or technology, would play a large role in a revitalized coal industry. Noting that coal still accounts for roughly 40% of worldwide energy generation, Perry stated: “It’s not like coal has been pushed out of the marketplace, I mean you are going to see coal used in the world. Our goal is for us to use the cleanest technology that we can and generally speaking, that technology is going to come from the U.S.”…

Four Things That Are Killing Coal

July 3, 2017

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Although President Trump has been promoting a pro-coal energy agenda, there are four things killing coal that the administration may not be able to remedy.

That was the message Bill Ritter Jr. delivered to American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Power and Energy Conference & Exhibition attendees during his keynote address on June 27. Ritter is the former governor of Colorado, founder of the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University, and author of Powering Forward: What Everyone Should Know About America’s Energy Revolution.

“In the United States of America, our power system—our power portfolio—is changing in a fairly dynamic way,” Ritter said. “I would argue, in spite of our November election . . . that transition is still happening.”

The four things Ritter said are likely beyond Trump’s control: state-level actions, municipal-level responses to climate change, corporate power-purchasing activities, and bipartisan cooperation outside of Washington, D.C.

1. State-Level Actions

Although Ritter noted that Congress has not passed a single piece of comprehensive energy legislation in the past 10 years, he said about 4,000 pieces of energy legislation get introduced annually on the state level, of which as many as 600 have gone on to become law each year.…

AES Closing Two More Ohio Coal Plants

March 22, 2017

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AES subsidiary Dayton Power & Light (DP&L) confirmed on March 20 that it will close two of its coal-fired plants by 2018 because they have become uneconomic.

The Ohio utility announced its intent to close the two plants in January as part of a settlement over its future reliability planning. The plan had been contested by a variety of parties and environmental groups. DP&L agreed to close the plants and shift its power mix toward more renewable energy. Monday’s announcement makes the move official.

AES purchased the two plants, J.M. Stuart Station and Killen Station, from Duke’s merchant generation arm in 2014. Killen is a single-unit, 618-MW plant in Wrightsville that began operations in 1982. Stuart, a four-unit, 2,318-MW plant in Aberdeen, first came online in 1969. DP&L owns 35% of Stuart and 67% of Killen.

According to local media, the closure may not quite be a done deal. Coal mining firm Murray Energy, which supplies coal to the plants and stands to lose a substantial amount of business if they shut down, is contesting the settlement with the Ohio Public Utilities Commission.…

Odds Are Against a Coal Comeback, Duke CEO Says

March 6, 2017

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Regardless of recent federal support for a revitalization of coal in the U.S., “the economics are challenged,” Lynn Good, CEO of Duke Energy, said March 1 during a presentation at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation Summit.

“I think coal continues to be an important part of a diverse set of resources … about a third of our generation comes from coal, but that will be declining over time,” she said.

The story of the decline of coal is not as cut and dried as many on Capitol Hill have suggested. The regulations passed in the last administration did play a part, but so did the decrease in natural gas pricing, Good said.

Regarding regulation, Good pointed to the Obama administration’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which forced many energy generators to make some tough decisions. “The mercury rule is the one I would point to most specifically that put a lot of challenge into the coal fleet, whether the investment to address that regulation made sense given the life of each of those plants.”…

Coal Fuel Contracts: A Moving Target

January 28, 2017

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In recent years, coal power generators have faced increasing difficulty predicting annual fuel requirements due to more cycling and low-load operation. That presents problems for the people negotiating fuel contracts. Not all mining companies are amenable to contract changes, but some unique solutions have been developed.

Remember when coal-fired power plants supplied baseload power 24/7/365 (when they were not offline for scheduled maintenance)? It seems like ages ago. Nowadays, load is as unpredictable as the weather, which is to say, if the sun is shining or the wind is blowing, renewable resources are often putting a crimp in coal-fired generation.

But renewable energy isn’t the only thing pushing coal plants to the sidelines; low-cost natural gas has played a role as well. Consequently, some gas turbines previously used as peaking units are now being dispatched for baseload power. That has meant various coal units have had to run at reduced loads or even to shut down for “economy” from time to time.…