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| Jim Mihalek posted, cropped May 7, 2022 -- Had some extra time on my drive back Ohio last weekend, so jumped off I-94 and got a few pictures of the Alliant's Columbia Generating Station, near Portage, WI. For the last 30+ years I have only seen it from the interstate. Bob Koch: One generator set to shut down in '23, second and full plant closure in '25. Charles Friedman: Bob Koch I designed a steam generator for improved performance at this plant a couple of decades ago, while working for Alstom Power, the French company which had bought assets from Combustion Engineering, which originally built the coal-fired boiler. |
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| Michael French posted Portage power plant 80"s |
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| safe_image for Columbia power plant to close by 2025, ending coal-fired power in Portage Served by Canadian Pacific. "Wisconsin’s second-largest coal plant and source of carbon dioxide will shut down by 2025 as utilities continue the shift away from fossil fuels....Closing the 45-year-old plant will allow it to avoid some $250 million in maintenance and upgrade costs while also speeding the company’s transition to clean energy....In just over 12 months, Wisconsin utilities have announced plans to shutter four coal plants, putting Wisconsin utilities on track to retire more than half the state’s remaining 5,846 megawatts of coal-fired capacity over the next five years. Those same utilities already closed six coal plants with a combined capacity of 2,300 megawatts since 2015." [They plan to replace the 1.1 GW with solar power. There are a lot of comments in the Facebook posting about the viability of solar power. Click the "safe_image" link to see them.] |
I noticed the crane in this 2018 photo. Sure enough, a power plant is being shut down rather soon after they did significant pollution upgrades. This is one of the better articles I have seen about a plant shutdown because they address the lost value of pollution control upgrades. "The three utilities [that own this plant] together have yet to recoup about $958 million of their investment in the plant, much of that associated with a roughly $800 million pollution control upgrade installed as part of a 2013 settlement for air pollution violations. It will be up to the Public Service Commission to determine how much of that remaining investment they can recover from ratepayers, and whether shareholders could lose money because of the plant’s closing." [WiscNews]
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| Corey Coyle, Dec 2018 |
"With Tuesday’s announcement, Wisconsin has just three coal-fired plants not scheduled for retirement: Weston, a 945-megawatt plant in Marathon County owned by WPSC and Dairyland Power; JP Madgett, Dairyland’s 387-megawatt plant in Alma; and We Energies’ 1,400-megawatt Elm Road generating station, which was completed in 2011." [WiscNews]
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| WiscNews |
"Alliant previously announced plans to close its 417-megawatt plant in Sheboygan next year and cease burning coal at three plants in Iowa, though it will continue to operate a 725-megawatt plant in Ottumwa and also owns shares in three other Iowa coal plants. The company has told regulators that replacing coal plants with up to 1,000 megawatts of solar generation can save customers up to $6.5 billion over the next 35 years." [WiscNews]
The first article referenced in the above quote explains the pollution upgrades mandated in 2013. "The agreement adds pollution controls at the Columbia power plant near Portage and tightens sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide limits to more stringent levels at both Columbia and a coal-fired generator at Edgewater that will continue operating. No cost estimates were available on those projects yet....As for who will shoulder those expenses, WPL spokesman Steve Schultz said, 'The civil penalty will be paid for with shareholder dollars. The environmental projects, those are projects that can be rate-based' — meaning, the utilities can ask the state Public Service Commission to have ratepayers pick up the tab." [madison]
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| June 24, 2022: safe_image for Wisconsin coal plants to keep running amid reliability, supply chain concerns William B. Hearn: There in MISO which is taking about 3 to 5 GW daily from PJM. Brian Granville: William B. Hearn but yet we just got PJM capacity numbers last week and they are half as much as they were in the last auction... we don't know how they are gonna keep ANY of the older units on at the new price William B. Hearn: Brian Granville That's surprising with how the price of generation has increased. Tim Stehle: Hmmmm… So are you revealing PJM “agreed” to sell capacity that it allowed to be shuttered to a location that is in a downward spiral itself? For what purpose - Govt takeover? Oh THAT will reduce rates for sure… |
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| wiscnews |
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