Tag: Recovery
Coal-Fired Power in 2021: A Recovery or a Reckoning?
The post Coal-Fired Power in 2021: A Recovery or a Reckoning? appeared first on POWER Magazine.
![Big-Bend-Coal-fired-power-plant](https://www.powermag.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/big-bend-coal-power-plant-al.jpg)
This has been the year from hell for coal-fired power and the coal industry. If current projections hold, coal generation in 2020 will be 21% lower than last year and 62% lower than the 2007 peak. The coal share of the generating mix, which for decades hovered around 50%, will finish the year at 20%, the lowest on record. Coal production will be the lowest since 1964 and down by a quarter just from 2019.
The new year may bring relief. The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) projects that coal generation will recover most of its 2020 losses in 2021, bringing some stability to coal plant operators and coal miners. The key factor behind a coal power recovery is higher prices for natural gas, which indeed appear likely in 2021. Nonetheless, a coal recovery in 2021 is highly contingent on other dynamics.…
Court Dismisses Westinghouse Claim for $2B Recovery from CB&I
More grim news emerged for financially strapped Westinghouse after the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a chancery court decision that the company was counting on to recoup $ 2 billion from an acquisition dispute with Chicago Bridge & Iron (CB&I).
The court rejected Westinghouse’s contention of CB&I’s calculations of its final purchase price—even though it paid nothing for the company up front. In favor of CB&I’s pleading, the court also ruled that nearly all of Westinghouse’s claims would not be presented to an independent auditor.
A Contentious Relationship
Westinghouse took the desperate step of filing for bankruptcy protection in March 29, crippled by financial setbacks stemming from half-built AP1000 reactor projects in Georgia and South Carolina. In documents associated with the filing, Westinghouse pointed to compounding delays associated with federally mandated design changes to the Vogtle and V.C. Summer projects, as well construction challenges, all of which played into the exorbitant cost increases that ultimately caused its financial debacle (for more, see How Westinghouse, Symbol of U.S.…