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Why Are We Still Closing Coal Plants?

Fred Palmer
Jan 18
1 min read

The warnings come from the organizations responsible for assuring reliable electric power. The National Electric Reliability Council has stated” “coal-fired generator retirements… have caused a sharp decline in anticipated resource … new generation is insufficient to make up for retirements and load growth.” The largest power pools in the nation echoed NERC concern in testimony before the House Energy Committee:


(1) PJM Interconnection (67 million people), CEO Manu Asthana: “dispatchable generators- those generators that can quickly respond regardless of weather, are retiring at a rapid pace largely due to state and federal policies.”


(2) MISO (15 states), Jennifer Curran, Senior VP,: “The rapid retirement of existing coal power plants threatens to outpace the ability of new resources”


(3) Southwest Power Pool (13 states) : CEO Lanny Nickell : “these retirements have almost exponentially increased reliability risks… around-the-clock generation (coal) was retired and largely replaced with weather-dependent resources” (i.e. wind and solar).


 
 
 

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