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Report: Nearly 80% of EU Coal Units Operate at a Loss

October 27, 2019

The post Report: Nearly 80% of EU Coal Units Operate at a Loss appeared first on POWER Magazine.

A new report from a group that studies the impact of climate change on financial markets recommends that European Union (EU) governments move to phase out coal-fired power generation completely by 2030 in order to avoid even-greater economic damage.

Carbon Tracker, a London, UK-based group supported by foundations in Europe and the U.S., on Oct. 24 released its Apocoalypse Now report. The study said European utilities could lose as much as $ 7.3 billion in 2019 from operations of coal-fired power plants. The group said nearly 80% of coal units in Europe are not economic, up from about 46% of units just two years ago.

Matt Gray, head of Power & Utilities for Carbon Tracker, in an email to POWERsaid, “In this report, we explain the financial implications of recent changes to EU coal power economics. In doing so, we argue EU policymakers and investors need to prepare for no hard coal or lignite generation by 2030.…

RWE Will Close Wales Plant, Leaving UK With Four Operating Coal Units

August 4, 2019

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German utility RWE on August 1 announced it will close its last coal-fired power plant in the UK. The closure of the Aberthaw B power station in south Wales, scheduled by the end of March 2020, means just four coal plants will be operating in the UK. The plant originally was scheduled to be shuttered in 2021.

Roger Miesen, chief executive of RWE’s generation business, said in a statement Thursday: “This is a difficult time for everyone at Aberthaw power station. However, market conditions made this decision necessary.”

The UK has been moving on from coal-fired generation over the past few years, and less than 5% of the country’s power came from coal last year. The UK earlier this year went a week without using any electricity from coal.

The UK government has said all coal-fired generation in the country must end no later than 2025 to help meet climate targets. Several plant closures have been announced in recent months; EDF Energy, the London-based utility, in February said it would close its Cottam coal plant in September.…

Siemens, Mitsubishi Discuss Merger of Turbine Units

March 22, 2019

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A German business magazine reports that Siemens is exploring options for its struggling gas turbine business, and could look to form a joint venture with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI). Manager Magazin on March 21 said Siemens “wants to accommodate the large turbine business of the Japanese Mitsubishi Group and in the future hold only a minority.”

Reuters, citing two sources, on Thursday reported that Siemens wants a plan in place by its capital markets day for investors on May 8. The sources reportedly told Reuters that talks between Siemens and MHI “had intensified recently,” although Siemens reportedly is looking at other options for the business, including keeping it.

Manager Magazin on Thursday reiterated, as it has reported previously, that Siemens and MHI could combine their large gas and steam generators’ businesses. The magazine said Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser began talks with MHI in 2017 about a joint venture, with the intention to merge the companies’ turbine operations, with Siemens holding a minority stake.…

EPA: Mercury Rules for Coal, Oil Power Units Not ‘Appropriate and Necessary’

December 28, 2018

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Because compliance costs to coal- and oil-fired power plants for the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) far exceed quantifiable benefits to regulating hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions, the Trump administration has proposed it is not “appropriate and necessary” to regulate HAP emissions from power plants under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act (CAA), according to a document signed by acting Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Andrew Wheeler on Dec. 27.

However, the EPA did not propose to remove coal- and oil-fired power plants from the list of source categories regulated under that section of the CAA, which means the 2012-finalized MATS remains in place. The EPA’s proposal, released publicly Dec. 28, is outlined in a revision to the agency’s final supplemental cost finding for MATS, which was required by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June 2015.

The agency on Friday also made public proposed results of the long-awaited MATS risk and technology review (RTR). The separate evaluations of risk and technology are required under CAA Section 112 every eight years after final HAP standards go into effect to determine if new developments should be incorporated into the standards.…

Trump EPA Scraps CCS as BSER for New Coal Units

December 14, 2018

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has significantly relaxed requirements needed to build new coal-fired power units in the U.S.

The revisions proposed on December 6 for performance standards governing carbon dioxide emissions from new, reconstructed, and modified coal power units respond to the Trump Administration’s Executive Order on Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth, which directed the EPA and other agencies to review existing regulations and revise or rescind “those that unduly burden the development of domestic energy resources beyond the degree necessary to protect the public interest or otherwise comply with the law.”

Among the proposal’s key changes to the Obama administration’s 2015-finalized New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) are that they drop partial carbon capture and storage (CCS) as the best system of emission reduction (BSER) for new coal units, citing “high costs and limited geographic availability of CCS.”

Instead, for new units, the EPA proposed limits for CO₂ emissions based on “the most efficient demonstrated steam cycle in combination with the best operating practices.”…

Siemens Combining Business Units as Part of New Strategy

August 13, 2018

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Siemens reported a 2% rise in industrial profit for its fiscal third quarter on August 2, topping analyst forecasts, though the German engineering giant also reported that revenue for the quarter dropped 4%. The earnings report comes as the company prepares to implement a new strategy that cuts its number of business divisions.

The company announced management changes ahead of the October 1 start of its Vision 2020+ plan, which replaces the company’s Vision 2020 outline adopted in 2014. Under the new plan, whose beginning coincides with the start of the company’s next fiscal year and is scheduled to be in place by the end of March 2019, Siemens’ five industrial divisions will be combined into three operating companies.

The company said the three operating entities—Gas and Power, Smart Infrastructure, and Digital Industries—will give its individual businesses “more entrepreneurial freedom.” The new units will work with what Siemens calls its Strategic Companies, which include Siemens Gamesa, Siemens Healthineers, and the planned Siemens Alstom train unit.…