Vistra continues to shed fossil-fueled assets, confirming Wednesday it will shut down a 40-year-old coal plant in South Texas over regulatory compliance and economic concerns.
The Irving, Texas-based company said it would retire the 650-MW Coleto Creek Power Plant no later than 2027 because it would be too expensive to comply with a pair of recently finalized EPA rules.
Separately, Luminant, the company’s Texas generator, notified ERCOT on Monday that it intends to retire an older gas-fired generator with 244 MW of capacity in April 2021. The Trinidad Power Plant dates back to 1965.
Vistra said its analysis of EPA’s Coal Combustion Residuals and Effluent Limitations Guidelines and potential future regulations would require a capital investment of “tens of millions of dollars” in emissions-control equipment to operate Coleto Creek beyond 2027. The first rule regulates the disposal of coal ash, and the second limits the amount of toxic metals in wastewater.
“This investment cannot be justified based on the underlying economics of the plant and the uncertainty of more stringent regulations to come,” Vistra spokesperson Meranda Cohn said in an email to RTO Insider.
Coleto Creek is the smallest of Luminant’s three coal plants in Texas. It was designed as a baseload plant but has been operating at only 38% capacity through the first nine months of 2020, the company said.
Vistra closed three power stations in 2017, shutting down 3.85 GW of coal fired generation because of the “economically challenged” environment. (See Vistra Energy to Close 2 More Coal Plants.) In October, the company said it would shut down seven coal plants in Illinois and Ohio, blaming MISO’s “irreparably dysfunctional” capacity auction design. (See Vistra Declares End of Midwest Coal Fleet.)
Luminant has about 39 GW of generation, primarily coal- and gas-fired, across 12 states. In recent years, it has ventured into solar power and energy storage in its Texas footprint, where it has 180 MW of installed capacity and another 2 GW under development or in the pipeline.
“Vistra does not take lightly any decision about operations,” Cohn said. “The company continually assesses our power plants based on real-time information while also analyzing the cost of environmental compliance for existing and pending regulations.
The company acquired Coleto Creek in 2018 as part of its merger with Dynegy. (See Vistra-Dynegy Merger Closes After FERC Nod.)
Luminant, 1 Other File NSOs with ERCOT
Luminant filed a notification of suspension of operations (NSO) with ERCOT, telling the Texas grid operator it plans to decommission and permanently retire Trinidad as of April 29, 2021. Market participants have until Dec. 21 to file comments on the plan, after which ERCOT will issue a determination on the plant’s future.
Wharton County Generation also filed an NSO on Monday for a 69-MW gas-fired unit along the Texas Gulf Coast. The company said the plant was decommissioned and retired Monday after a forced outage. ERCOT said it will not evaluate the resource for reliability-must-run status.
