Dynegy to retire Wood River coal-fired power plant
Published by Harleigh Hobbs,
Editor
World Coal,
As a result of the Wood River coal-fired power plant operations becoming uneconomic due to a difficult wholesale capacity market in Central and Southern Illinois that does not allow competitive generators to recover costs, Dynegy has decided to retire the 465 MW plant in Alton, Illinois.
The plant includes two coal-fired units that began operation in 1954 and 1964 and Dynegy plans to retire these in mid-2016. The company intends to formally file a retirement notice with the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. by 1 December 2015.
As a consequent of this retirement, many employees at Wood River risk job losses. The company has indicated it will be working on plans to reduce the impact on the approximately 90 employees and will focus on terminating operations in a safe and environmentally responsible manner. Dynegy has specified it will work with all of the relevant state, local, and community stakeholders to address the impact of the retirement of Wood River.
“I would like to thank the men and women who have proudly and professionally served and safely operated the Wood River facility for decades,” commented Robert C. Flexon, President and CEO of Dynegy. “Wood River has been an important part of the local community for many years providing safe, reliable, and cost effective power while also being a responsible corporate citizen.”
Flexon continued: “Dynegy is committed to working with MISO, the state of Illinois, Union leadership and all stakeholders to redesign the MISO capacity market to one that properly functions and fairly compensates competitive generators or alternatively, to transition Illinois fully into PJM. Otherwise, all generating plants in the MISO portion of Illinois will face a future of financial challenge. If Wood River was located in the PJM market, like Dynegy’s Northern Illinois generating units, it is unlikely this retirement would be occurring.”
Edited from press release by Harleigh Hobbs
Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/power/09112015/dynegy-to-retire-wood-river-coal-fired-power-plant-3128/
You might also like
EIA reduces its forecast for US coal exports following Port of Baltimore closure
The US EIA has decreased its forecast for US coal exports following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and the resulting closure of the Port of Baltimore.