Coal-Fired

Lawmakers in New Mexico have advanced a bill that calls for the public utilities and rural cooperatives to source all of their electricity from renewable sources by 2045, in effect phasing out power generation fueled by coal and natural gas.

Unveiled earlier this year as a $2.5 billion proposal to reduce carbon emissions in Colorado, Xcel Energy’s Denver-based utility on Monday was given a green light by state regulators to reduce coal-fired generation and increase natural gas and renewable resources.

New domestic natural gas-fired generation, along with some renewables, will replace the power supply lost with the retirement of 35 GW of coal-fired and nuclear generation plants over the next five years, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Despite climate change-related challenges and anti-carbon skeptics, the National Regulatory Research Institute (NRRI) and the American Petroleum Institute (API) said natural gas likely will remain an integral part of the U.S. energy mix going forward, but California regulators aren’t quite as sure.

Michigan’s DTE Energy plans to add more natural gas-fueled power generation as part of a broader plan to cut the company’s carbon emissions by more than 80% by 2050.

Moody’s Investors Service warned in a report released on Monday that merchant coal-fired power generators operating in PJM Interconnection continue to face increased refinancing risks as wholesale electricity prices remain low and more natural gas-fired facilities come online.

FirstEnergy Corp. this week reported a steep $6.2 billion (minus $14.49/share) net loss for 2016, reflecting asset impairment and plant exit costs related to its recent decision to leave the competitive power generation business and transition to a fully regulated company by 2018.

The four non-government utilities that own most of Navajo Generating Station (NGS) in Arizona, as expected, decided Monday to push for the plant’s continuing operations through the next three years. However, they could walk away from the 2,250 MW coal-fired plant by the end of this year rather than the end of 2019, when an existing lease with the Navajo Nation expires.

Utility owners of the massive coal-fired Navajo Generating Station (NGS) were scheduled to meet in Phoenix Monday, and the fate of a bygone era for power generation could be on the chopping block, another casualty of the impact today’s cheap, abundant U.S. natural gas supplies have had on the once-dominant coal-fired electricity sector. Decommissioning the plant is one of the options being considered.