Coal news and updates

Vistra, the largest power supplier in Texas, is accelerating its move away from coal with an earlier-than-expected closure of an Ohio power plant.

 

The Irving-based power generator said Monday that it will close the Zimmer Power Plant in Moscow, Ohio, by mid-2022, years earlier than the previously reported plant retirement deadline of 2027. The closure comes after the coal plant failed to gain any capacity revenues in the latest auction held in May by regional grid operator PJM, which serves parts of the Northeast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic.

 

Capacity revenues are critical to Zimmer operating economically, a Vistra spokesperson said. The plant received approximately $47 million for the planning year 2021-22.

 

“The Zimmer coal-fueled power plant has recently struggled economically due to its configuration, costs and performance,” said Vistra chief executive officer Curt Morgan in a statement. “The PJM capacity revenues are critical to Zimmer, and unfortunately, without them, the plant simply doesn’t make money.”

 

Vistra originally announced the anticipated closure of Zimmer in September 2020 in its plan to pivot toward clean power generation sources. The company expects to close seven power plants in Illinois and Ohio, including Zimmer, in coming years. It will also close a plant in Goliad, Texas, by the end of 2027.

 

In April, Vistra announced it was moving up closure of the Joppa Power Plant to Sept. 1, 2022, as part of a settlement agreement with the Sierra Club. The Illinois plant was previously set to close by 2025 at the latest.

 

 

The Zimmer site will close on May 31, 2022. Vistra will evaluate the location for potential investments in renewables or battery storage.

 

Zimmer Power Plant opened in 1991 and employs about 150 workers. The site operates with 1,300-megawatt capacity.

 

The plant isn’t the first to close following the May PJM capacity auction. Houston-based NRG Energy Inc. announced in June that it will close three plants, two in Illinois and one in Delaware, because of disappointing auction results.

 

Vistra has had a hard few months following the February freeze that caused $1.6 billion in losses for the company. The results of the extreme weather halted progress on an effort to turn around the company after it emerged from a multi-year bankruptcy in 2016.

 

The company serves nearly 4.3 million customers with electricity and natural gas and is the largest competitive power generator in the U.S. Vistra has a capacity of about 39,000 megawatts from a portfolio that includes natural gas, nuclear and battery energy storage, and it’s in the process of building a battery energy storage system in California.

 

Source : https://www.limaohio.com/wire/state-wire