East Kentucky Power Cooperative to deactivate 196-MW Dale coal plant

Louisville, Kentucky (Platts)--11Apr2014/422 pm EDT/2022 GMT

East Kentucky Power Cooperative plans to deactivate all four units at its 196-MW Dale coal-fired power plant in Clark County over the next year, but the two largest units, while inactive, will be "maintained in place" for a possible restart, a spokesman for the generation and transmission co-op said Friday.

For months, the Winchester, Kentucky-based co-op has been evaluating what to do with Dale, whose units were placed in commercial operation between 1954 and 1960. East Kentucky eventually decided it would be too expensive to install advanced pollution controls to keep the plant running after April 2015.

Dale's two smallest units, representing about 46 MW, will be taken down "immediately" and the co-op will start exploring the market for those assets, Nick Comer, the spokesman, said in an interview.

Units 3 and 4, each rated at 75 MW, "will be available until April of next year," he said. "If markets and regulatory rules change, those two units would be available to operate."

Currently, Dale cannot comply with the US Environmental Protection Agency's new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule, which goes into effect in April 2015.

"Economic conditions play into it as well," he noted. Many US electric utilities have been plagued by slack demand since the 2008 national recession.

According to Comer, Dale burned 60,861 short tons of Central Appalachian coal in 2013.

In recent years, the plant has operated on a limited basis due to economic factors. Often, East Kentucky said, it has been more affordable to operate other plants or purchase power from the market, particularly since East Kentucky's 2013 integration into PJM Interconnection, which provided ready access to competitively priced power.

"Dale station was East Kentucky Power Cooperative's first power plant," Tony Campbell, the co-op's president and CEO, said in a statement. "This plant has been a reliable workhorse, generating the electricity that powered many thousands of Kentucky homes and businesses over the past 60 years."

Dale also is the site of electric transmission facilities, including power lines and a switchyard, that are integral to the operation of the regional power grid, the co-op said. Those transmission facilities will continue to operate after the generating units are deactivated.

East Kentucky also owns and operates the 341-MW Cooper baseload coal plant in Pulaski County and the 1,279-MW Spurlock baseload coal plant in Mason County. The co-op has installed pollution controls on both plants and intends to continue operating them for years to come.

--Bob Matyi, newsdesk@platts.com
--Edited by Derek Sands, derek.sands@platts.com

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