Coal news and updates

Enel seeks to close Chile coal plant six months early

Enel Generacion, one of Chile's largest power firms, has applied to the government to close its Tarapaca coal-fired power plant by the end of the year, around six months earlier than agreed under the government's phaseout plan, the company said Monday.

The 158-MW unit, located 65 km south of the northern port of Iquique, was due to close in May 2020 under the decarbonization plan unveiled by Chilean president Sebastian Pinera earlier this month.

Enel said it wants to close the plant sooner to underline its commitment to cleaning up Chile's electricity supplies.

"We believe that this is another step on our way to lead the transition in Chile towards a more renewable energy mix," Paolo Pallotti, CEO of parent company Enel Chile, said. "We have asked to move quickly in this direction and we hope that the response will be positive."

Chile's electricity law requires companies to give the National Energy Commission two years' notice before disconnecting generation units from the grid, but Enel said it had asked commission's executive secretary Jose Venegas to make an exception.

Chile relies on coal plant to supply almost 40% of its electricity, and last year it imported more than 11 million mt of thermal coal, mostly from Colombia.

The government's decarbonization plan expects to source all of the country's electricity from renewables, especially solar and wind, by the middle of the century. Chile's four largest power firms have agreed to close all 28 of their coal-fired plants, with a combined capacity of 5,500MW, by 2040.

A timeline has been set to close the first eight, or roughly 1,000 MW of capacity, by 2024.

Source: S&P Global