APMDC Suliyari coal upcoming auction 1,50,000 MT for MP MSME on 2nd JAN 2025 @ SBP INR 2516/- per MT
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New UserTags: coal | surplus | power | energy | miners Huge Coal Surplus Real Problem for Power Producers
17 Dec 2024
American power producers over the past two years have
accumulated massive amounts of coal that are now sitting idle at their
facilities and creating financial and storage problems for utilities and coal
miners, according to a report published on
Monday by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
The coal stockpile has reached about 138 million tons, which is
roughly the same amount of coal that Appalachia is expected to produce next
year.
These huge amounts of coal amount to some $6.5 billion in unused
inventory, with the report stating that "no power producer wants that much
money idly sitting around. But it has become much harder to burn that coal
without losing money."
The report attributes these difficulties to several major
factors — including lower natural gas prices and a significant increase in
solar and wind generation, which has made coal-fired electricity considerably
less competitive. In addition, the report points out that there has been a
decline in the occurrence of electricity price spikes during summer heat waves
and winter cold snaps.
The report warns that given the buildup in coal stockpiles,
power providers will, at a certain point, purchase much less from coal
producers, especially since it is estimated that due to the U.S. energy transition,
an additional 13 gigawatts of the nation's remaining 173 gigawatts of
coal-fired capacity will retire by next year.