New England coal burn falls ahead of summer

OREANDA-NEWS. Coal-fired power generation in New England is down by 22pc so far this year compared with 2014, despite higher-than-average output during the winter months from the region's few remaining coal plants.

Coal generation in the year to 10 May averaged 957MW, or 7pc of total output, based on data by the Independent System Operator. But coal plants have been dispatched rarely or not at all since early April. Coal use for generation in New England peaks in winter and summer months. The grid operator relies more heavily on coal in winter, even though electricity demand peaks in summer, because of natural gas delivery constraints in winter months.

Natural gas so far this year accounted for 45pc of the regional generation and nuclear plants accounted for another 33pc. But gas' share on some winter days fell to as low as 24pc, with coal rising to almost 15pc of daily generation.

Only four major coal plants and a co-generation facility remain in New England from a fleet that in the 1990's provided almost one-fifth of regional generation. And coal's presence in the region is likely to shrink further before the end of the decade.

The largest of the plants, Dynegy's 1,544MW Brayton Point in Massachusetts, will shut in 2017. Three units at that facility, with 1,083MW, exclusively use coal.

Eversource Energy's Public Service of New Hampshire plans to sell the 439MW Merrimack coal plant and the 150MW Schiller, where two units with 95MW burn only coal.

Beyond those units, NewPage owns the 95MW Rumford co-generation plant in Maine. And Public Service Enterprise Group owns the 389MW Bridgeport Harbor station in Connecticut.

Bridgeport's owner wanted to build a natural gas-fired plant at the site, but the project did not clear the 2018-19 forward capacity auction. The company so far does not plan to take Bridgeport off line.

New England coal facilities are taking both US and internationally-sourced supplies, Energy Information Administration data show. Bridgeport in February took 165,896 short tons (150,501 metric tonnes) from Adaro's Tutupan mine in Indonesia. Brayton Point in the same month took 119,905st from Arch Coal's Ragland Loadout in West Virginia and the Cerro Largo mine in Colombia. Merrimack received 8,903st from Consol's Bailey mine in Pennsylvania and the Calenturitas in Colombia. Rumford took 12,567st from the Mina Norte in Venezuela. Schiller last received deliveries in January, taking 44,548st from La Loma in Colombia.