Midwest Generation to Sell Shuttered Crawford Power Station in Illinois

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Crawford Power Station (Chicago, Illinois), which is owned by Midwest Generation EME LLC (Chicago, Illinois), a subsidiary of Edison International (NYSE:EIX), closed in August 2012 and is now up for sale. The facility generated 788 megawatts (MW) and operated from coal, natural gas and fuel oil.

Amid a recovering economy, many power facilities are falling short of their expectations, no matter how hard they try to develop a booming business.

Lately, coal has been snubbed by many as an air polluter and one of the causes of the increase in greenhouse gases. Emission control has become a hot topic for coal-burning power plants. It is now mandatory that these facilities comply with regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) involving NOx, SOx, and Mercury by 2015. Interstate or intrastate coal-burning units must install emission-control devices to reduce pollutants released into the atmosphere.

Smaller and older coal-burning facilities are faced with spending millions of dollars to retrofit the breach between the boiler and the stack. In most cases, especially with smaller plants, it is not feasible to add these control devices to their units. Because of time constraints, decommissioning, dismantling and demolishing the units is an alternative to complying with regulations or fines from the federal government.

However, boiler fuel conversion techniques, either burner or fuel type, have been introduced as a viable alternative. Natural gas has become a leader for fuel conversions due to its low price and availability. But even in natural gas is accessible for a customer, the delivery system may be unattainable because of the distance and or the cost of installation.

Finally, there are the independent power generators that merge with other independents. Smaller and older units are sometimes inherited in an acquisition or merger; the new owner might not want the cumbersome task of decommissioning, dismantling and demolishing, so selling the unit(s) might be the only recourse.

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