U.S. Fossil-Fuel Plants to Continue Closing their Doors After 2018 Deals Blow to Coal

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The U.S. Power Generation Industry accelerated its closure of coal-fired power plants in 2018, hitting the off switch on 11.4 gigawatts (GW). This trend is hardly new: Nearly all of the utility-scale power plants in the U.S. that were retired from 2008 through 2017 were fueled by fossil fuels, largely coal or natural gas steam, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Industrial Info is tracking 15 closure-related projects at U.S. fossil-fuel power plants that are expected to kick off in 2019, including decommissionings, dismantlements and demolitions.

Click on the image at right for a graph detailing fossil-fuel plant closure projects in 2019, by U.S. state.

Last year was the top year for coal retirements since 17 GW of capacity was shuttered in 2015, according to Bloomberg News. The Trump administration has erased, or vowed to erase, many of the regulations on coal-fired power plants, but those rules only partly influenced the trend. The plummeting price of natural gas--expected to dip further this year--is giving coal the worst label of all: uneconomic.

This year's closure-related projects at coal-fired facilities are concentrated in the eastern half of the U.S., which saw 19% of its coal capacity retired in the past decade, according the EIA. These include:

• Units 1, 2 and 3 at Tennessee Valley Authority's (NYSE:TVE) (TVA) (Knoxville, Tennessee) Thomas H. Allen Plant in Memphis, Tennessee, which generate 990 megawatts (MW); see project report
• Austin Utilities' Northeast Power Station in Austin, Minnesota, which generates 29 MW; see project report
• Alliant Energy Corporation's (NYSE:LNT) (Madison, Wisconsin) Sutherland Generating Station in Marshalltown, Iowa, which generates 311 MW; see project report
• Units 1 through 6 at the Walter C Beckjord Power Station in New Richmond, Ohio, now closed and owned by Commercial Liability Partners LLC (St. Louis, Missouri), which generated 1,064 MW; see project report

But even natural gas is being replaced by natural gas. According to the EIA, older steam-turbine technologies are being displaced by newer, more efficient technologies such as natural gas-fired combined-cycle (NGCC) and combustion turbines. Since 2008, natural gas steam-turbine retirements accounted for 46% of the installed steam capacity in the West Coast and Rocky Mountain regions, according to the EIA.

This year's natural gas-fired closures can be found in most regions of the country:

• Units 3 through 6 at the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power's Haynes Generating Station in Long Beach, California, which generate 444 MW; see project report
• Alliant Energy's Fox Lake Power Station in Sherburn, Minnesota, which generates 131 MW; see project report
• Units 1 and 2 at Evergy Incorporated's (NYSE:EVRG) (Kansas City, Missouri) Gordon Evans Power Station in Colwich, Kansas, which generate about 526 MW; see project report
• Chillicothe Municipal Utilities' Chillicothe Power Station in Chillicothe, Missouri, now closed and being dismantled, which generated about 94 MW; see project report
• Units 1 at Lakeland Electric's McIntosh Station in Lakeland, Florida, which generates 87 MW; see project report

An additional 37 GW of coal-fired power units--nearly 25% of today's fleet--are set to exit the U.S. market by 2025, according to Bloomberg. But the EIA warns that U.S. utilities might end up building three times more NGCC capacity than is necessary.

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