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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association Incorporated (Tri-State) (Westminster, Colorado) has proposed prematurely retiring two coal-fired generators in western Colorado as part of a revision to a state implementation plan (SIP) to protect visibility in federal Class 1 areas in the state, Tri-State announced last month. The two generators to be retired, Craig Power Station Unit 1 and the Nucla Power Station, have 527 megawatts (MW) of combined generating capacity. A coal mine that provides fuel for Nucla, the New Horizon Mine, also will close as part of the settlement.
The SIP must be approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Washington, D.C.) and the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission (Denver, Colorado). The EPA was a party to the proposed settlement, announced September 1, but the Colorado agency was not.
Craig Unit 1 has numerous co-owners, including Tri-State, Salt River Project (SRP) (Phoenix, Arizona), PacifiCorp (Portland, Oregon) and Xcel Energy Incorporated (NYSE:XEL) (Minneapolis, Minnesota). Tri-State is the sole owner of the Nucla station. Tri-State generates and transmits electricity at wholesale to 43 member electric cooperatives located in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska.
Craig Unit 1, a 427-MW unit that began operating in 1980, will close by yearend 2025. Starting in 2020, that unit also will be required to meet more stringent annual emissions limits. Nucla, a one-unit, 100-MW station that began generating electricity 1959, will close by 2022. That power plant also will have more stringent limits on nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions beginning in 2020. The settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Washington, D.C.) and the environmental organization WildEarth Guardians (Santa Fe, New Mexico), does not affect the continued operation of Craig units 2 and 3.
Another factor driving the decision of Tri-State: Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper is drafting an executive order mandating power plants reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 35%.
A SIP for Craig Unit 1 approved in 2014 called for installing equipment to reduce emissions of oxides of nitrogen. But the owners instead opted to retire that unit, citing the state and federal regulatory environment for coal-based generation, current and forecasted market conditions, the significant costs to install additional emissions controls, and the best interests of electric consumers.
"Tri-State has worked tirelessly to preserve our ability to responsibly use coal to produce reliable and affordable power, which makes the decision to retire a coal-fired generating unit all the more difficult," Mike McInnes, chief executive at Tri-State, said in a statement September 1. "We are not immune to the challenges that face coal-based electricity across the country."
"We are part of this rural community and understand the retirement of Craig Station Unit 1 will affect our employees, their families, their communities and their very way of life," McInnes continued. "We feel a strong responsibility to provide ample time for our employees and the community to plan for the future, which this agreement allows."
Tri-State said the Nucla station was the world's first utility-scale power plant to utilize atmospheric circulating fluidized-bed combustion. Original construction of the power plant was completed in 1959, and the unit was repowered in 1987.
"Craig Unit 1 and the Nucla station are two of the hundreds of older, smaller and less-efficient coal-fired generators whose economic viability has been undermined by federal, and sometimes state, environmental regulations," said Britt Burt, Industrial Info's vice president of research for the global Power industry. "The particular regulation that did these plants in is the federal Clean Air Act's regional haze requirement. But the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan, now before the Federal Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit, and the state of Colorado's plan to lower power plant emissions of CO2, would have made these two generators uneconomic too."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com.
The SIP must be approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Washington, D.C.) and the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission (Denver, Colorado). The EPA was a party to the proposed settlement, announced September 1, but the Colorado agency was not.
Craig Unit 1 has numerous co-owners, including Tri-State, Salt River Project (SRP) (Phoenix, Arizona), PacifiCorp (Portland, Oregon) and Xcel Energy Incorporated (NYSE:XEL) (Minneapolis, Minnesota). Tri-State is the sole owner of the Nucla station. Tri-State generates and transmits electricity at wholesale to 43 member electric cooperatives located in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska.
Craig Unit 1, a 427-MW unit that began operating in 1980, will close by yearend 2025. Starting in 2020, that unit also will be required to meet more stringent annual emissions limits. Nucla, a one-unit, 100-MW station that began generating electricity 1959, will close by 2022. That power plant also will have more stringent limits on nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions beginning in 2020. The settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Washington, D.C.) and the environmental organization WildEarth Guardians (Santa Fe, New Mexico), does not affect the continued operation of Craig units 2 and 3.
Another factor driving the decision of Tri-State: Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper is drafting an executive order mandating power plants reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 35%.
A SIP for Craig Unit 1 approved in 2014 called for installing equipment to reduce emissions of oxides of nitrogen. But the owners instead opted to retire that unit, citing the state and federal regulatory environment for coal-based generation, current and forecasted market conditions, the significant costs to install additional emissions controls, and the best interests of electric consumers.
"Tri-State has worked tirelessly to preserve our ability to responsibly use coal to produce reliable and affordable power, which makes the decision to retire a coal-fired generating unit all the more difficult," Mike McInnes, chief executive at Tri-State, said in a statement September 1. "We are not immune to the challenges that face coal-based electricity across the country."
"We are part of this rural community and understand the retirement of Craig Station Unit 1 will affect our employees, their families, their communities and their very way of life," McInnes continued. "We feel a strong responsibility to provide ample time for our employees and the community to plan for the future, which this agreement allows."
Tri-State said the Nucla station was the world's first utility-scale power plant to utilize atmospheric circulating fluidized-bed combustion. Original construction of the power plant was completed in 1959, and the unit was repowered in 1987.
"Craig Unit 1 and the Nucla station are two of the hundreds of older, smaller and less-efficient coal-fired generators whose economic viability has been undermined by federal, and sometimes state, environmental regulations," said Britt Burt, Industrial Info's vice president of research for the global Power industry. "The particular regulation that did these plants in is the federal Clean Air Act's regional haze requirement. But the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan, now before the Federal Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit, and the state of Colorado's plan to lower power plant emissions of CO2, would have made these two generators uneconomic too."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com.
