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More Than 20 Coal-Fired Plants Will Close in Wake of Wastewater Rule

November 29, 2021

A new wastewater rule authorized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) earlier this year is leading several coal-fired plants to announce closure plans, according to an analysis of state regulatory filings by the Sierra Club.

The group said at least 26 plants in 14 states have said they will stop burning coal, with 21 facilities closing and another five switching to natural gas-fired generation, according to a report published Nov. 22 by the Associated Press. The EPA has said it expects the rule would impact about 75 coal-fired plants across the country.

The EPA in July announced it would reinstate Obama-era regulations on wastewater that were rolled back by the Trump administration. The new wastewater rule requires power plants to clean coal ash and toxic heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic, and selenium from plant wastewater before it is discharged into streams and rivers.

Coal-fired power plants had an October deadline to tell their state regulators how they planned to comply with the rule.…

ERCOT Board Members Resign in Wake of Blackouts

February 24, 2021

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The post ERCOT Board Members Resign in Wake of Blackouts appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Five board members of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s power grid operator, on Feb. 23 announced they would resign their posts, just days after extreme winter weather left more than 4 million Texas electricity customers without power for several days.

Sally Talberg, chairwoman of ERCOT, is among those resigning. All those leaving the organization apparently live or work outside Texas, and have been criticized by state officials for not being Texas residents. A sixth person, an out-of-state candidate who had applied for a position on the ERCOT board, on Tuesday withdrew that application.

ERCOT manages the flow of electricity for more than 90% of Texas. State officials have criticized the grid operator after last week’s massive blackouts, which left millions of homes without power. State officials said the severe weather has led to more than 30 deaths, including some from hypothermia brought on by the cold.…

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

November 12, 2017

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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.…