Coal

Incumbency! 🏭

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Incumbency! 🏭

I was thinking how silly it is of the electric utilities to not be promoting electric cars. Increasing demand for night time generation could be very profitable for the utilities and help smooth out there loads. It might even save many a coal fired and nuclear power plant, which are such big loosers with the low revenue during the night time.

But alas, most of the utility companies are more interested in doing the things the way they always have. Change is risky. But utilities have all the advantages when the grid becomes more renewable and more electrified. They have the high voltage wires, the transformers and the rural land that keeps the nuisances of generation of energy far away. Plus it’s not clear if electrifying more of America is actually that bad for them, especially the coal and nuclear operators.

But then again, it’s not always clear that business leaders are profit and power maximizers or if they are more concerned with incumbency and resisting change. Any time the world changes it can be pretty risky especially if you are an industry leader.

Four Corners Generating Station – Wikipedia

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Four Corners Generating Station – Wikipedia

The Four Corners Generating Station originally consisted of five units with a total rated generating capacity of about 2,040 megawatts. Units 1, 2, and 3 (permanently shut down in 2014 as part of a $182 million plan for Arizona Public Service Co. to meet environmental regulations)[4] had a combined generating capacity of 560 megawatts while units 4 and 5 each have a generating capacity of 770 MW. Units 1, 2 and 3 opened in 1963–64 and Units 4 and 5 opened in 1969–70.

NPR

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Wyoming Doubles Down On Its Long Support For Carbon Capture : NPR

The country's largest coal producing state is desperate to keep the struggling industry going. Wyoming is investing big to try to clean up coal's carbon emissions, even as many say it's too late.

The immediate problem with coal isn't the emissions or the waste produced, as much as its the fixed output of the plants that is of low value for much of the day - the plants cost more to run than they can make in electricity sales.

Coal is dying just like nuclear power - if it was the emissions that were killing the plants, then nuclear power would be winning. If you don't have a marketable product that you shouldn't be forcing consumers to buy it. The future is very low cost renewables, along with mid market natural gas turbines and especially peaking natural gas plants.

If coal can adapt to provide more mid market power than it has a brighter future - even without carbon sequestration. But getting coal to burn cleanly and reliability under mid market conditions is challenging - existing coal plant designs don't ramp well - and they pollute a lot more and suffer much higher breakdowns when they are forced to regularly change output. But if scientists can figure out how to make next generation plants ramp better than coal has a future at least in coal country, especially sited on existing facilities.