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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