OREANDA-NEWS. Coal-fired power plants in Kansas and Oklahoma are waiting to find out if they will get more time to comply with federal rules limiting mercury emissions, an extension their owners say is urgently needed to protect grid reliability.

The owners of those two plants have asked the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for up to a year of extra time, until 16 April 2017, to comply with the agency's mercury and air toxics standards. The generators say having to comply with the rule as planned next year would force the plants to shut down, pushing reserve margins below their minimum requirements and threatening reliability.

EPA has yet to respond on those requests, despite receiving the first filing eight months ago. The agency faces no deadline to act, but in 2011 policy memorandum said it would try to give plant owners "as much advance written notice as practicable" about how it plans to respond to extension requests.

The Kansas Board of Public Utilities filed its extension request in August 2014 for its 256MW Nearman 1 coal plant so it would have more time to install \$250mn worth of pollution controls. And the Grand River Dam Authority in its extension request, filed two months ago, sought the delay for its 490MW Grand River Energy Center in Oklahoma so it could finish building a replacement combined cycle gas plant.

The extension requests have the support of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which under the 2011 policy has been tasked with providing comment about whether the compliance extensions are needed to maintain reliability. The commission in November said the Nearman 1 unit needed the delay and last week also supported the extension request for the Grand River Energy Center.

EPA did not comment on when it planned to act, but confirmed it has not sent out any written notices. The agency noted that by law it must wait until the plants' planned April 2016 compliance deadline to provide a formal "administrative order" that would delay compliance.

Most coal- and oil-fired power plants have had three years to comply with the mercury rule, with an 16 April deadline. Other power plants have been able to operate for a fourth year, until April 2016, with permission from state regulators. Power plants wanting to operate for a fifth year are required to file their requests directly with EPA.

EPA said it has so far only received the two extension requests, but more could be on their way. Dominion Virginia said it plans to ask the agency later this year to let two coal units at its Yorktown power plant to keep operating through April 2017 so it will have time to install a transmission line across the James river that it says is needed for reliability.