Coal news and updates

Patriot Coal and Armstrong Coal are supplying about 1.2 million st of steam coal to Kentucky's largest electric utilities, Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities, under recently signed spot and term contracts, a spokeswoman for the PPL Corp. subsidiaries said Tuesday.

 

Of the two, St. Louis-based Patriot commands the lion's share of the new business.

 

Patriot, which exited bankruptcy late last year, is supplying 60,000 st to the 242-MW Green River power plant in Muhlenberg County through June under a spot coal purchase and another 1 million st -- 500,000 st each of high-sulfur steam coal in 2014 and 2015 -- under a term arrangement, LG&E/KU spokeswoman Liz Pratt said in an interview.

 

The term coal is for the 2,000-MW Ghent plant in Carroll County, the 1,472-MW Mill Creek station in Jefferson County, and the 1,274-MW Trimble County plant in Trimble County.

 

Trimble County consists of two units, an original 514-MW unit that went into commercial operation in 1990 and 760-MW TC 2 that began operational in January 2011. TC 2, a supercritical unit, is one of the newest baseload coal plants in the US.

 

Pratt did not disclose how much LG&E/KU are paying for the coal.

 

At least some of Patriot's high-sulfur coal is believed to be coming from the company's Highland No. 9 underground mine along the Union County-Henderson County border in western Kentucky. Highland produced 2.9 million st in 2013 and 3.9 million st in 2012, US Mine Safety and Health Administration figures show.

 

Together, LG&E and KU burn 16.5 million-17 million st of coal annually. The two utilities currently have a formal request for proposals out for steam for for the Trimble County, Mill Creek, Ghent, Green and 749-MW E.W. Brown power plant near Harrodsville in Mercer County.

 

LG&E/KU are seeking up to 400,000 st of Powder River Basin and/or NYMEX-barge coal starting in May 2014 and up to 600,000 st of PRB and/or NYMEX spot coal beginning in January 2015 for TC 2. They also are requesting bids on other amounts of coal. The deadline for responses is 5 pm EDT on March 25.

 

Armstrong Coal produces more than 8 million st annually of high-sulfur coal in western Kentucky. It is a subsidiary of Armstrong Energy, headquartered in St. Louis.

 

 

Source: Platts