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Coal Power Plants – Year First Operating

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Fewer and fewer coal powered fired plants from the 1950s are still operating, but most are more then 40 years old at this point. Even as little as 5 years ago, there was a lot more coal plants left from the 1950s, but they are mostly gone at this point.

Coal Power Plants - Year First Operating

Most Common Heating Fuel

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This map is based on a very popular Washington Post map of a few years back. Basically for all 84,000 or so US Census Tracts, it compares the method most common for heating.
 
As New Yorkers, we might think it's odd that electric heating is the most popular way to heat houses in great parts of country, and it's not just in warm climate south -- electricity is popular where electricity is cheap, like in the Northwest and much of Appalachia.
 
Oil is odd fuel, not widely used outside of the rural areas in the Northeast and Alaska. Propane dominates the rural Midwest, where it is cheap due to farms using to dry corn.

Heating with fuel oil, which is essentially dyed diesel, seems like an odd choice. Oil is expensive, but also is electricity in the Northeast.

In the 1940s through the 1970s, there was a big push to retire both coal power plants and coal heating for reasons of pollution and convenience, and oil seemed like a good drop in replacement, when oil was cheap. But the northeast relying on oil so heavily for power generation, caused electricity to spike in 1970s, which ironically caused some people to swap out electricity for fuel oil. Natural gas supply has traditionally been constrained in New England, which is another reason why the Northeast likes oil so much.

 

Most Common Heating Fuel

Bethlehem Energy Center Aka Albany Steam Station

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Key Facts:
Location: Bethlehem, NY
MW: 790
Fuel: Natural Gas (Low Sulfur Distillate Oil As Secondary)
Technology: Combined-Cycle
Commercial Operation: 2005

https://www.pseg.com/family/power/fossil/stations/bethlehem.jsp

"Albany Steam Power Station first began operations in 1952 as a coal-fired station and was converted to oil in 1970. It was further modified in 1981 for natural gas and became a 400MW oil and natural gas-fired power plant. The BEC has cut emissions of smog-causing nitrogen oxide by 90%, and reduced sulphur dioxide emissions by 94%. The BEC generates 50% less waste heat than the Albany Steam Station and has reduced air emissions by at least 95%."

https://www.power-technology.com/projects/bethlehem/

"The New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment (Siting Board) has announced approval of plans to make hardware and software changes at the Bethlehem Energy Center in Glenmont that are designed to help improve the plant’s energy efficiency. The petition was submitted by the plant’s owner, PSEG Power New York LLC. The approved changes will allow for the replacement of certain components of the three combustion turbines and certain changes to related software programs. The equipment being replaced are components of the combustion turbines themselves. According to the Siting Board, the upgrades will result in very little, if any, impact on the environment or the surrounding community, and will not result in any increase in air emissions from the facility."

https://www.spotlightnews.com/news/2017/01/12/state-siting-board-oks-plans-to-improve-bethlehem-energy-center/

Bethlehem Energy Center Aka Albany Steam Station