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NRG said it plans to stop burning coal at its domestic plants outside Texas, and install new pollution controls at its two Texas plants. The Homer City coal-fired power plant will continue operating, according to multiple news sources in western Pennsylvania, where the plant is located. The three-unit, 1,884-megawatt generating station in Indiana County, about 45 miles east of Pittsburgh, was thinking about shuttering one or more units, while also exploring options to add renewable energy to the site.
Many coal executives talked about their struggles, as clients asked to defer their obligations. Given that coal producers didn't want to lose their share of an already shrinking market, many agreed to do so without penalties. Against this backdrop, Consol asked the court in July to halt a sale of the power station until the breach of contract case is resolved.
Homer City Generating Station
Homer City, which is east of Pittsburgh and is the largest coal plant in Pennsylvania, has told state regulators it plans to keep operating and abide by the new wastewater limits. In 2001, affiliates of General Electric bought the plant from Edison International, and subsequently leased it back to them. In 2011, Edison failed to secure financing to add pollution-control devices and announced plans to transfer full control to General Electric. On February 29, 2012, Edison took a $1 billion impairment charge related to the Homer City plant and several other coal-fired power plants. At the end of 2012 full control of the plant was transferred back to General Electric, which hired an NRG affiliate to operate it.
“The free ride these plants have been getting is ending in a lot of ways,” said Zack Fabish, a Sierra Club lawyer. “And them choosing to retire by 2028 probably reflects the reality that a lot of the subsidies they have been getting in terms of being able to dump their wastewater into the commons, they are not going to be able to do that in the future." This chimney is currently the third-tallest chimney in the world, the second-tallest in North America, and the tallest in the United States. On clear days, it is possible to spot the chimney from as far south as Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and as far east as Ebensburg, Pennsylvania. The chimney is no longer in use, as the gas flow from Unit 3 has been bypassed through a newer flue gas treatment system installed in 2002. Owners of shuttering plants are responsible for environmental cleanup, according to the EPA.
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“It is clear in the case of the two Pennsylvania plants, the cost of compliance will put them out of the economic running," she said. She said coal plants in competitive electricity markets like Pennsylvania’s have also come under pressure. “It is clear in the case of the two Pennsylvania plants, the cost of compliance will put them out of the economic running,” she said. The plants opened more than 50 years ago and together employ about 320 full-time workers and 170 contractors.
Mr. Kim said Homer City's emphasis on reducing expenses -- it idled its coal cleaning plant in March and has deferred maintenance activities -- is reminiscent of the run up to the plant's 2012 bankruptcy. Even the company's auditors are concerned about its ability to repay mounting debt with shrinking resources, said Clifford Kim, a senior analyst with Moody's Investors Service who downgraded Homer City in February to the lowest rating before a default. Rob Nymick, borough manager for the town of Homer City, said the company has been tight-lipped about rumors of a team of buyers evaluating the plant, but he doesn't question the secrecy. So far, GE and Homer City haven't responded to the charge that they violated a contract with Consol.
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The rule is expected to affect 75 coal-fired power plants nationwide, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The long-term move away from coal has been pronounced in Pennsylvania, the nation’s No. 3 coal-producing state after Wyoming and West Virginia. The new wastewater rule requires power plants to clean coal ash and toxic heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic and selenium from plant wastewater before it is dumped into streams and rivers. Climate change isn’t what’s driving some U.S. coal-fired power plants to shut down. The planned shutdowns could leave Homer City Generating Station as the last large, traditional coal-fired power plant in the state still operating by decade’s end.
They generate enough power for perhaps 1.5 million homes, according to industry averages for coal plants of their size. Those plants had an October deadline to tell their state regulators how they planned to comply, with options that included upgrading their pollution-control equipment or retiring their coal-fired generating units by 2028. Planned shutdowns could leave Homer City as the last large, traditional coal-fired power plant in the state still operating by decade’s end. In addition to Pennsylvania, states with power plants that plan to stop using coal by 2028 are Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia, the Sierra Club data shows. The fundamentals are that natural gas has been edging out coal as the cheapest source of baseline electricity generation on the grid.
Membership is open to professionals working at utilities and organizations supporting the industry. The announcement to keep the three units at Homer City operating also comes on the same day as a Pennsylvania court decision to hold up a regulation that would have allowed the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative . RGGI is a cooperative, market-based effort among the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia to cap and reduce CO2emissions from the power sector. She said coal plants in competitive electricity markets like Pennsylvania's have also come under pressure.
It instituted a monthly quota and allowed Homer City to defer up to 125,000 tons of coal each quarter. "Homer City was a mere puppet of the GE entities," the lawsuit states. It was GE officials who negotiated contract changes with Consol and they instructed Homer City's staff to break that contract and buy cheaper coal from other producers, the complaint claims. Now the legal battle with Consol poses a new threat over piles of southwestern Pennsylvania coal that the plant doesn't want but had a contract to buy.
The facility, which employs 271 workers onsite, also draws its coal from surrounding mines -- putting at risk a chunk of coal production at Kittanning-based Rosebud Mining Co. and other local suppliers. If Consol is victorious in court, Homer City won't have enough money to pay damages, the coal company said in its lawsuit. It placed the responsibility for the conflict and for its potential award on the shoulders of GE Capital and its affiliated companies.
The Indiana County plant operates on three units, capable of providing electricity for up to 2 million homes. PJM conducts annual “capacity auctions” to commit power generation, efficiency and provide long-term pricing for the energy that is bought and sold across a stretch of states spanning from Illinois to Delaware. As is, the three-unit plant has the ability to generate enough electricity to power up to 2 million homes. First responders were first called to the coal-powered generating plant, located along Power Plant Road in Homer City, around 8 a.m. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Until its construction in the 1960s by the Pennsylvania Electric Co. and others, much of the property was owned by the George family. In 1969, Units #1 and #2 began operation, while Unit #3 began operating in 1977. The station is located in Center Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, occupying approximately 2,400 acres (9.7 km2). The site also includes the 1,800-acre (7.3 km2) Two Lick Reservoir, a water conservation facility which is operated by the station.
The facility's owners are considering deactivating some of its units, and will make a final decision by April of 2022. Experts have pointed out that in the case of last winter’s massive Texas blackout, most of the megawatts that went offline were generated by gas, coal and nuclear plants. If you have an experience or insight to share or have learned something from a conference or seminar, your peers and colleagues on Energy Central want to hear about it. It's also easy to share a link to an article you've liked or an industry resource that you think would be helpful. Now, Consol says Homer City should be barred from buying coal from other producers, which is "compounding the injury to Consol by reducing its market share and advantage," the coal miner said. In its complaint, Consol claims it tried to play ball with Homer City.
But they did object to Consol's legal arguments to breaching the veil, preventing a sale, and ordering Homer City to buy coal only from Consol. The conflict began last year when Homer City started deferring coal shipments it was obligated to buy from Consol under a January 2014 contract. The plant underwent hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades, including new scrubbers to meet air quality standards over the past decade. Homer City officials said they plan to issue a response to the organization by April 4.
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